As you know, I’ve been scouring the local thrift stores in search of ruined wool, and I haven’t been having much luck in that department. On the other hand, I’ve been finding an amazing cache of hand knits too beautiful to destroy even for the sake of felted art. The jacket above is one example. The amazing thing about these sweaters is that they are all in my size. Some petite knitter with long arms has been donating great things to the thrift stores of Juneau. Last week I found a sweater that was minutes from completion, just a little button band to tidy up. Today I found a well-loved, impeccably knit fair isle and this jacket knit in heavy wool in one of my favorite shades of red. I may never need to knit a sweater again, which would be fine with me, because, as you know, I could be happy making hats and shawls forever.

Who is this knitter? I’m afraid she may be deceased. Her progeny must not have the superior taste she possessed: why else would they part with her beautiful things? Maybe she bore only giants and these smaller knit gems didn’t fit anyone in the family. Or, maybe she’s still living, and she loves to anonymously give away her creations. I suppose there is the possibility that my fairy knit-mother is not just one knitter, that the sweaters I’ve found are a random assortment of creations. I may get more clues if the hand knits keep turning up.

I’ve spent the afternoon preparing supplies for a class I’m teaching this month at The Canvas, an art studio here in Juneau. The class is called Sweater Reclamation. We’re making new projects from old wool: felted sweaters, cut up old blazers, anything that might look better as a new craft. I’m bringing ideas and supplies, and I’m hoping my students bring creativity and a sense of whimsy. I’ll take pictures and let you know what we make!

p.s. Search “recycled sweaters” on flickr for some inspiring ideas!

Craft Magazine has just published my latest pattern, Sara’s Hat, on their blog. It’s a perfect fall hat–a soft beanie worked in squishy wool (Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand-Dyes). Back loop single crochet is finished with Crab Stitch (reverse single crochet) for a nice, braided edge.

I crocheted this hat for my sister-in-law Sara, and when I gave it to her, I subjected her to a photo shoot, thinking I would certainly want to publish the pattern eventually. (Yay for forethought!) I was excited when Craft approached me about creating a crochet colorwork pattern for them since I already had this nearly ready to go.

With the move, and graduate school, I haven’t been doing tons of knitting and crochet lately, but I’m finishing up one hat design right now and starting another. Sense a theme? I’m determined, as I’ve had to fit my yarn “collection” into our new house, to knit up the slew of unfinished projects I discovered in unpacking. We’ll see how long that determination lasts.

Now that we’re getting settled in here in Juneau, I’m starting to develop a daily routine. In the mornings, after making breakfast and packing lunches, I make my tea and fill my mug, then walk the kids to the bus stop. Buses come at about 8 a.m. Then I head south on a walk.

I vary my path slightly each morning, but most often I hit many of the same favorite spots. My route includes a jaunt across Sandy Beach and a stroll through parts of the Treadwell Mine trail, including my favorite spot–the cave-in–where the trail meets the beach. (I’ll talk more about the Treadwell Mine in a future post, I’m sure–it’s a fascinating part of my neighborhood’s history).

I find myself wanting to photograph the same spots day after day as the light and the surroundings slowly change with the tide and the seasons. My little camera phone isn’t great, but it’s with me all the time, so it gets the most use. I’ll probably keep adding to this particular flickr set as I notice more tiny details of my walk.

Homer Knitting – 002, originally uploaded by plainsight.

I picked up this lovely little skein of hand spun when I was in Homer last week. The shop is in a YURT with about the best view I’ve ever seen from a yarn store.

It’s “souvenir” yarn. You know what I mean–the skein you buy without a project in mind just because it reminds you of a place. This skein is perfect because it’s hand spun, and in colors that remind me of the landscape around Homer.

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terribly hard,”
Says Alice.
From “Buckingham Palace,” by A.A. Milne

That verse from When We Were Very Young kept floating through my head last week as James got ready for his Change of Command ceremony. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance, but when it came down to it, all it took was a couple of salutes and a few sentences. “I relieve you,” and “I stand relieved,” I think.

It was rainy and windy, but that didn’t keep a full house of well-wishers from joining us on the buoy deck of the ship.

At the ceremony to mark his relief, James received a meritorious service medal from Admiral Ostebo and gave a wonderful speech recognizing the crew and all that they have done during his three years as captain. He entertained us with sea stories and surprised even me by recognizing how many days of the last three years the ship was underway (it was more than 60% of the time).

I loved the ceremony–seeing James and his crew in their dress uniforms and watching him inspect and greet each member as he said goodbye. It was hard not to get a bit teary and feel very proud.

After the official party with cake, of course, we moved the festivities back to our house and celebrated in typical Cordova fashion:

You might be able to guess what this all means… That’s right, we’re moving. But not too far. We’re thrilled to be staying in Alaska. James has been transferred to Juneau. Our countdown has started, and I’ve got my moving cap on, simultaneously researching to get us set up in Juneau, while trying hard to squeeze every moment out of our time in Cordova. We’ll be in our new house by August 1st.

Typically, I think of fall as the time to find wild edibles in our little corner of Alaska. The berries and the mushrooms appear in August and September just in time to put up for winter. This is the first spring that I’ve been aware of all the fun things around to forage.

I’ve already missed fiddlehead season… the ferns are now unfurled. But if they’re still around in your neck of the woods try and taste some!

Our friends Rion and Chrissy went out the road to hunt for Devil’s club buds today.

Apparently this prickly plant produces some tasty buds early in the season that are also quite nutritious. They’re also gathering nettles for tea and other plants for salves and balms.

We had another gorgeous sunny day today. We worried as we hiked up Mt. Eyak that this might bode the end of our “summer” instead of the beginning as it sometimes does. Summers can be quite rainy and cool here, but so far we’ve been really lucky.

Alaskan kids know how to celebrate a warm day.

While we were hiking we chewed on salmonberry blossoms. They were tender and tasted mildly of salmonberries. Very nice. But I reminded myself that any blossom I ate would not be a berry later, so I held back.

At the Midway, where we stopped for a snack, we ran into a friend who was telling us about fireweed shoots. It turns out the tender stalk of the fireweed plant is delicious. You can sauté it like asparagus, and Toni told us it’s amazing pickled. I found this image on flickr of a fireweed shoot omlette:

There’s a wonderful Alaskan food blogger, Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, who has a great post about harvesting and using fireweed shoots. (She blogged about the Devil’s Club too.) The fireweed shoots are best before the leaves start to poke out, when the stalk is mostly red and about 6-8 inches tall.

When we got home from the hike it was so warm we (well the crazy among us) jumped in the lake. The air was about 63 degrees. A warm Alaskan day. The water was probably a bit chillier than that.

I stayed dry and made cocktails using another foraged edible: Spruce Tips. This is possibly my favorite new drink. It’s a shame the tips are only available for a few days each year. Spruce tips are out right now, and I’ve been harvesting them for a few days with my friends Alyssa and Erica. The tips can be eaten fresh in salads, they have a tart herb-y flavor, and are a little resiny, but I like them. They’re very high in vitamin C, and they were used in pioneer times to ward off scurvy.

We’ve been cruising the web for recipes and found some great ones at the Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska blog–she has recipes for Syrup, Mayonnaise, Shortbread and even flavored salt. Rainsoaked, a Juneau Alaska blogger has a great recipe for jelly, and another blog has one for Sorbet which I really want to try. I made the syrup last night, and found it came out a bit on the thin side, but it tasted so lovely. Citrus-y with a light herbal flavor. The first thing that popped into my head was Cocktails! So today, I devised one based on the syrup:

Spruce Tip Cocktail

1 oz. Gin
2 T. Spruce Tip Syrup (I used this recipe)
Club Soda
Ice
A few fresh Spruce Tips
Salmonberry Blossoms for Garnish

(By the way–I’ve heard that fir and other pine tips can be substituted for spruce tips in any of these recipes).

Fill an 8 oz glass half-full with ice. Add gin and spruce tip syrup. Crush a fresh spruce tip between your fingers and add to glass. Fill the glass with club soda, stir, and garnish with a salmonberry blossom.

Cheers!

I designed this headband for a class here in Cordova this winter. It knits up quickly, and is a great introduction to cables. One of my friends, Seawan, made a whole slew of them for Christmas gifts. You can get 2 headbands out of the Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran. In sample pictured (which my friend Becca knit), we used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece Serendipity Tweed. I think the colorway is called Pointsettia.  My students  and I practiced our cabling without a cable needle which I learned from Annie Modesitt many years ago at a knitting retreat in DC.

Don’t you think this would be a great thing to wear around Valentine’s day? Here in Cordova, there are many days when, if you’re out on a hike, you get too warm for a hat, but it’s still nice to keep the chill off your ears, so a headband makes the perfect accessory.

Just like my Lobes of Love crocheted earrings, the headband pattern will be free until Valentine’s Day. Happy knitting!

These little crocheted earrings are set off by tiny crystal beads and sterling silver fish hook findings. the crochet motifs are only 2 and 3 rounds each, so they go fast and are fun to give and wear. If you’re new to crocheting with thread, try making the motifs with yarn first to get a feel for the pattern. Then switch to thread.

Thanks to my friend Becca for the pattern name!

This pattern will be a FREE ravelry download only until Valentine’s day. (If you have a ravelry account and want to add the pattern to your library, use this link). After that it will be available for purchase. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Next to handmade socks, we love Smartwool most. Their socks fit great and feel great, and most of them are pretty long-wearing. Some of the styles are more of a thin dress sock than a cushioned practical sock, and I’ve discovered that these dress socks can wear thin. It’s not a hole, not the kind of thing that you could fix by darning. So instead of throwing them away, I decided to do a needle-felted patch. It was so easy. Much faster than photographing and writing up this quick how-to. 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need to fix a thin spot in a wool sock:

• A needle felting needle
• A very small amount of wool (crimpy soft wool works best. You can buy bits especially for needlefelting or just use something from your spinning stash).
• A foam block at least 1.5″ thick and narrow enough to fit in your sock.

Turn the sock inside out and slide the foam inside. Stretch the sock a little so you can see the thin patch well.

Lay a thin layer of wool across the spot you want to fix. (Remove any vegetable matter from the wool so it doesn’t poke your feet).

Use the felting needle to attach the wool to the sock. Stab it a lot. You want that patch to stay put.

Turn the sock right side out. You’re done! See the wooley bits poking through? Don’t worry about them. They’ll flatten and help felt the patch into the sock as you walk on it. Washing the sock should get the patch to felt into place even more. I tried this sock on, and I couldn’t even feel the patch. A successful repair!

If you try this technique, I’d love to hear what you think. It might work on small holes as well, or in combination with darning.