Claire Creates

Swiss Chard Pancakes

2012-01-16T11:50:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, these pancakes are Delicious! You just have to disassociate "pancake" from the breakfast food it usually is. Think of it more like a savory flatbread. You with me? Ok.

I created this as a way to get a very tough to eat veggie like chard into a form my daughter could feed herself, but we all like them. They are an amazing match with roasted chicken and are particularly tasty topped with sour cream and maybe some diced up chives.

Ingredients:
1 batch of pancake mix plus whatever ingredients your box wants you to add + a little extra mix

However much water your mix tells you to use.
4-5 leaves of chard (if you have a wimpy blender remove the stalks)
1/4 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
Whatever seasoning you want, I just used black pepper

Method:
Put the water and all the vegetables and seasoning in the blender and blend till it's green and soupy
Mix with pancake mix and other ingredients the mix calls for. Since the veggies release water, you will have to use a little bit of extra mix. Get it to the consistency you look for in a pancake batter.
Make pancakes as you usually would.
Enjoy!

I like to measure so every pancake is the same size because I burn fewer that way. These are very tiny pancakes each made with just 1 tbsp of batter. Note the size of the onion in the picture, and that there are about 40 pancakes on a regular size dinner plate.

Mom note: these freeze and defrost in the toaster (or in the fridge overnight) absolutely fabulously with no discernable loss of texture or flavor. I plan to always make a nice big batch. The tiny ones go really easily into the baby's lunchbox too, and are easy for tiny fingers to manage (although I usually rip them into 4 pieces anyway).
No, they are not "hidden" vegetables, but my kid is not yet at the picky eater stage so we haven't had to have that battle yet and she eats these just fine. Plus, with only a couple teeth, this is the easiest way for her to eat chard!

Baby Surprise in Action

2012-01-11T09:54:00.000-06:00

Here are some shots of the BabySurprise Jacket in action! I opted for mismatched bright orange buttons... Actually leftover from my baby shower decorations!! Tip: if you use mismatched buttons a button is easier to replace if you loose it and don't keep extras for every outfit lying around...

The hat was crazy simple and made from some bulky stash noro I lost the band for. All there is to it is a rectangle long enough to go around the head folded in half, then seamed together end to end and along one side. The "ears" are just the corners... Flat and off the head, this just looks like a garter stitch rectangle. I actually made it on a plane flight after realizing at THE LAST SECOND that we were leaving somewhere warm and going somewhere cold and my child did not have a warm hat.

Here's the kiddo getting a shoulder ride from her dad!

And experiencing cold wind for the first time in her little life. She was delighted and laughed and put her arms up, this is one of the best shots I got of the emotion.

Here's a better look at that hat and the fun orange buttons. They really take the sweater from "nice" to "incredibly cute" in a split second. I sewed them on with an orange and magenta verrigated cotton yarn, which also helps in the cute department.

While a hat could be knocked out in nothing flat... I am very glad I had realized a week earlier that she also did not have warm pants and knocked out a pair of worsted weight footed longgies... Details and photos to come in another post!

Baby Surprise Jacket

2010-11-26T12:00:00.002-06:00

This is the first thing I knit for the baby. I'm tragically behind on updating the blog, this growing a baby thing is had work! I'm due in ONLY FOUR WEEKS, so i don't know how well I'll do on updating it AFTER that either. Still, writing down details makes me happy, so I'll keep on with it.

This was a stashbusting experience knit with three different colors of Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed DK. I just followed the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern. Here's a ravelry link to the project: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/clairecreates/baby-surprise-jacket-so01b

This jacket is really warm and I'm hoping it fits for her second or third winter. She'll barely be a newborn for the first winter, so I know it will be way to big for her now.

All finished (but less the buttons):

Halfway folded up:

Even though garter stitch takes FOREVER because it's so dense, the fabric sure looks nice!

socks again

2010-11-21T14:37:00.003-06:00

This is the second pair of socks I ever knitted, and my third ever knitting project (the first was a ribbed scarf). I got the chance to "visit" with them again when my mom brought them over to be darned.

They are a very basic pattern, I think it was a "knitting pure and simple" pamphlet. Both this pair and the first pair were the same pattern, same yarn (although different colors). The yarn is the Brown Sheep Wildefoote sock yarn. It's pretty darn durable considering these are a few years old and were knit on size 2 needles (now i usually use 1s or 0s for socks).

more socks

2010-11-11T15:56:00.003-06:00

Another pair of socks knit quite some time ago... These are out of the Cascade handpainted sock yarn, I forget the specifics. I bought it on impulse since I was on a "yarn crawl" event and totally unsuccessful at NOT buying at least one thing at every store. I think I was also trying to convince ellie that I was capable of buying yarn that did not include in some way teal, lime green, or dark purple. What can I say, I have a problem, at least lately, with overpurchasing of items in these colors.

Anyway, these are a garter stitch rib (2 knit x 2 garter) with 2x2 ribbed stitch cuffs and are pretty uneventful otherwise. They do fit me nicely, and I am working to get over the extreme pinkness, but they're still fun.

Birdseye view:

From the side, showing the very simple/basic heel, the flap is knit in the same rib stitch as the rest, and I find that picking up the side stitches in garter leaves absolutely no ridge on the inside of the sock, unlike when I try to pick up a stockinette or slip stitch selveage:

Closeup of the stitch pattern. I have convinced myself that the small amount of yellow in there is enough to keep them from being too girly:

Lots o' socks

2010-08-07T07:48:00.005-05:00

I've been busier knitting than posting as of late... Plus since March I've been growing a baby, which seems to take an incredible amount of energy.

Anyway, I've been knitting up a bunch of socks, on and off, and finally got around to uploading some pictures. I think, in order to get them up, I'll do them a pair at a time :)

First, blue socks I made for hubby. These are in Dream In Color sock yarn, which is DELICIOUS. Knit on size 2 needles (a bit bigger in gauge than I typically like for socks). I hope they last a while. So far, it's been a bit over a month and they're looking OK. I also have a ton of extra yarn, so I can darn if I need to. A basic ribbed leg and top of foot, a square heel, and a basic toe. All improvised, no pattern. Hubby likes them very much.

everything is cuter when it's for a baby

2010-04-02T10:36:00.003-05:00

I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot of gifts for babies and small children in the next few years, so I'm delighted at how well these came out. Sooo cute! I started these before I knew if they were for a boy or a girl... figuring that if it was a boy I'd buy an incredible hulk T-shirt to go with it and call 'em an outfit. It was a girl though, so no incredible hulk t-shirt.

This is the elizabeth zimmerman pattern for knit longies, done up as pants. They were a very easy and straightforward knit. They are super stretchy and seem like they'll be comfy for baby. I did them up with the elann.com esprit, which is almost all cotton with a touch of elastic. Should be comfy and somewhat easy care.

The elastic kind of crinkles up the cotton, so the knit fabric has a really nice texture. I also knit it at a pretty firm gauge, the yarn recommends a size 7, but I used a 4. Hopefully that will also add to the durability.

I bought a ton of this on a "full bag" sale, so I had 10 balls of each color. Plenty for a ton more baby pants, but I think I'll be waiting for something else to call to me as the perfect project.

Knitting tip: When I switched from the purple too the ribbing at the bottom edge, I did the first row of green in plain knit which gives a plain clean line on the transition instead of the color breaking you get on the purl side of the fabric when you do stripes. It makes the top and bottom ribbing both look equally clean and tidy.

squirrely squirrel sampler mittens

2010-03-21T12:26:00.002-05:00

I finished the Squirrel Sampler Mittens! Yay! I really had a lot of fun with this pattern, but I'm not sure how often I'll be knitting lined mittens. They are very warm, but it's quite a bit of extra work... plus I don't live in a climate where you need wool mittens that often, let alone lined wool mittens.

In either case, they are super duper adorable! I knit the outside of the mittens with KnitPicks Palette which is a fingering weight 100% wool and knit the lining with KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud wich is a lace weight 100% alpaca. They are pretty luxurious feeling on the inside and pretty hearty feeling on the outside, which is why I guess lining mittens can be pretty awesome. They are knit on size 0 needles. They are extremely snug on my hands, but they aren't for me. This is the first xmas gift completed for 2010 and the giftee has much smaller hands than me. :-)

and here are some shots that show off the lining. First as it's being knit:

and then what you see once it's finished:

So soft on the inside.

I am thrilled to bits with these mittens. They are adorable and they make me happy. It's probably a good thing they don't really fit (that's me wearing them, but there isn't enough ease for them to be comfortable).

spinning on a WHEEL!!! YAY!

2010-03-20T14:58:00.003-05:00

I'm borrowing a wheel and chugging away. I've actually spun up quite a bit of yarn, but taking progress pictures of all the steps isn't going so well. Here are a few I've managed to take.

This is the yarn as singles (before becoming 2 ply). It's from lorna's laces wool top and it's the "tahoe" colorway. Also in process is another batch of the same wool top in the "bittersweet" colorway.

I spun about 1/3rd of the tahoe on my top whorl spindle, and the remainder on a spinning wheel. I can't decide which I like spinning on best, but I do know I like plying on the wheel much more. The wheel may be marginally faster (but right now, not much). I'm not sure if there's a trick to it or what, but I can't seem to get an even consistent yarn at anything thicker than a sport or maybe DK weight in 2 ply. Is there some secret to spinning bulkier yarns? In any case, while I try and figure that out... here's what I've got for the singles. This is the very first batch I did on the wheel:

More to come... including pictures of it all plied up!

bagels!

2010-03-07T12:26:00.003-06:00

My friend and I decided to have a bagel cooking day. We teamed up to make a batch of homemade bagels. They were DELICIOUS. For sure something I'd make again. The particular recipe we used was from Vegan Dad, but I think if I make them again, I'll pick one that takes you from start to finish in one day and see if they work just as well. I'm less likely to do something that you have to do over two days. Anyway, they were dense, chewy, and absolutely delicious. In my opinion the best two were the plain one and the one I topped with smoked sea salt. I like a salt bagel and the smoked salt was truly fantastic.

here are pictures:

regular salt bagel is in the top right corner, the smoked salt bagel is in the bottom left corner. The others are two sesame seed and two plain.

here's a glamor shot closeup of one of the plain ones. It sort of feels silly to take pictures like this of bagels, but it seems to be what you do.

Cake!

2010-03-05T19:15:00.002-06:00

I've still got old projects from Christmas to post, and even some new ones for this christmas started. I'd wanted to do the Knitting Olympics, and I did, but I totally did not finish. It certainly didn't help that I was TOO SICK TO KNIT for an incredibly long FOUR days. It hurt to be upright. It hurt to try and hold my hands aloft, it hurt to try and lean over to read a chart and painstakingly try to follow it (especially with a pattern that has no repeats). So, in short, the Squirrel mittens are not finished.

I did manage to decorate a pretty darn cool cake for a friend's baby shower, so I'll share that instead.

Her nursery decorations are for the most part either from or inspired by the lilac sparrow collection from Dwell Studio. So, because of that I thought it would be fun to do cakes inspired by the same.

First, I was going to bake the cake myself, but since I was sick (see above) the week before, I didn't have time. Whole Foods to the rescue as they were very cooperative in making some "custom" cakes for me that were free of any decoration at all. Their berry chantilly cake is to die for, and when I picked it up, this is exactly what I'd ordered:

The sparrow pattern is basically some birds sitting on brown tree branches with purple, pink, and brown flowers and leaves. I started by coloring some marzipan brown and adding it to the cake like branches:

Then I added the leaves and the flowers and a simple border along the bottom edge:

and a small marzipan bird:

here is the finished cake along with the inspiration pattern. I was pleased as punch with the results:

still posting xmas - lace shawl edition:)

2010-02-14T13:03:00.003-06:00

So... that big pink lace sampler shawl from Victorian Lace Today... I did finish it on time to send out to California for my grandmother to open it on Christmas Eve. You can view all the details you could ever want to see about it on the ravelry page here. Aside from that, this thing is humongous. Almost two feet wide, longer than I am tall (so, 6+ feet). Light as a feather since this lace was 1450 yards/100 grams. Used just a little bit less than one skein, held single. I was worried about running out of yarn and my calculations said if I followed the pattern I would just barely have enough. To compensate, I took one stitch out of the garter stitch border along each side and I omitted the pointed border from the long edges (I still did it on the short edges). Grandma loves it. I know she will never wear it, but I think she has it on display in her house somewhere (probably in the china cabinet). Anyway, here are some of the seemingly endless numbers of photos I tried to get of it before packing it off.

And there are still a few more christmas projects remaining for 2009, all gifted on time, but just not posted yet. I think I'm down to a small handful... 1 clapotis and 1 dickey/cowl.

Xmas 2010 is already in full swing over here at Claire Creates too! I'm doing the Knitting Olympics and hope to finish up a pair of Squirrel Sampler Mittens, plus if I'm really going for it, a second pair of plain mittens! :)

still catching up wiht xmas... weaving edition

2010-01-22T23:16:00.004-06:00

so... I did finish all of my xmas gifts on time, but posting them is a different matter all together. Hopefully I'll get thorough it all before next xmas.

I'm so excited at how well this scarf came out. It was fast too (well... compared to the lace shawl I was making with this yarn before I frogged it to make this beauty in just a few days)... The yarn is this gorgeous silk I got from ArtFibers. Here's a link. I would definitely use this yarn again for weaving. It's just a simple plain weave at 12 ends per inch, and then I lightly ironed it after washing. I had to wash it at least three times, this yarn bleed like crazy. Like, poured a bottle of food coloring in the water bleeding. But... pretty!

It really is a dark purple closest to the shot where I'm wearing it, but I was having a hard time getting good pictures right before I had to pack it up and ship it out.

Lightly ironing it seemed to line everything up and bring out this incredible sheen that was there, but only just barely, before ironing. I was very careful about overdoing it though.

more xmas knitting

2010-01-06T22:34:00.004-06:00

Here's another scarf I made as a gift for Christmas. This time it was an alpaca scarf for my father in law. I used a simple fisherman's ribbing stitch pattern and a 100% alpaca sport weight yarn (the now discontinued "Pure Alpaca Fina" from elann.com in one of their 10 ball "full bag" sales). I've never used fisherman's rib before and I'm amazed at how thick and fluffy this scarf is considering the weight of the yarn. It's alpaca to boot, so it's incredibly warm, perfect for someone who lives in the cold of Colorado. A winning stitch pattern I will use again for sure!

lacy baktus

2009-12-31T08:11:00.001-06:00

There are certainly a lot of folks making the lacy version of the baktus scarf, and I'm one of them. This one was a cute, super simple, and super quick knit. It was done practically before I knew it, probably in large part because I took it over to a friends house and knit away while we gabbed and watched Project Runway as a group. I don't have all that many friends who knit, so it's usually a bit of a show when I bring it out, no matter how simple.

I wish I'd remembered to tuck the band from the skein into the ball when I wound it. I like this yarn and I wish I could remember what it was. I did go back to the yarn store to try and find more, but to no avail. Whatever brand it was didn't seem to have this colorway, and there were other brands with a lime green and bright ass pink that weren't the right ones. The base yarn is very nice, but there's a lot of really nice hand dyed sock yarn out there that looks just like it.

coasters

2009-12-27T23:42:00.000-06:00

Here's a simple Christmas gift I did this year, another winner from the book Last Minute Quilted and Patchwork Gifts (so far, a great choice, this book is great for last minute ideas). This one was a simple set of coasters. I used a very vibrant yellow rayon thread and took it as a chance to work on my sewing, practicing sewing even parallel lines.

now... my very first spinning!

2009-12-16T22:39:00.000-06:00

I have a bunch of christmas stuff ready to post up, but I'm waiting in case some of the family accidentally remember I mentioned that I have a blog and come and look at it. in the meantime...

My friend Ellie showed me how to use a drop spindle to make yarn (DANGER, new craft alert) and it was FUN! I'm certainly going to need a bunch of practice, but what I got I don't consider too bad for a first attempt!

I had four ounces of dyed wool top (still new to the terminology, but I think I have it right), and here were my results (on the right were the first two ounces, on the left the second two ounces):

I still need to read up on spinning to get the hang of the whole "S" and "Z" twist thing and figure out how to get the right amount of twist in the singles so the plied yarn is as twisty as I want it to be. And to learn all the right things to call everything so I can sound like I know what I'm doing. A lot of learning how to be better is learning all the terminology so you at least know how to ask questions to get the answers you want.

Here's what that second two ounces looked like on the drop spindle before being plied.

and here's a closer view at those second two ounces.

Not perfect, but I am pretty darn proud of my first attempt. Now I just have to figure out what to weave, knit, or crochet using the stuff!

Oh, and I'm borrowing a spinning wheel from the WSSA, so look out, there may be more of this in my future!

Super fast beret

2009-12-13T15:51:00.000-06:00

I've been finishing up a lot of holiday gifts in the last few weeks and have a ton of projects to get caught up on posting here, but I thought I'd share my super-fast quick and dirty beret guidelines, because a project that is really fast, really simple, and only uses one skein of yarn is a great thing.

I think you'd need to use a bulky/ chunky yarn for this. With a thinner yarn and more stitches you'd need to be more refined... bulky yarn is more forgiving. These guidelines definitely assume you know what you're doing and have a good eye for estimation.

Yarn used: Rowan Chunky Print (100g per 100m/ 110 yards) almost all of one ball, although any bulky yarn could be used

Needles: two sizes, one smaller for the band of ribbing and one larger for the rest of the hat. I like to knit hats on a smaller needle than "called for" on the ball band, this yarn called for a size US # 13, and I used a US #8 on the ribbing and a US #10 for the top of the hat.

Cast on the "right number" of stitches for a somewhat snug fitting band of 1x1 ribbing (even number of stitches) . In my case it was 72.

Knit in 1x1 ribbing for about 1.5 inches.

Increase substantially by working (k1 in knit stitch, knit in front and back of purl stitch) around.

Work even for about 3 inches or so.

divide work evenly in quarters (either onto 4 dpns or using stitch markers)

crown decreases: knit around, decreasing (by k2tog) one time in each quarter every row (total 4 decreases per round). I didn't want to show a "line" of decreases, so I made sure that they were in a different place every time. For example... on one round I decreased by k2tog on the third stitch after the marker, the next round I did it on the 10th stitch after each marker, changing the place on every round.

Continue that way until you have 4 sts left. on next round k2tog and knit to end, work a tiny bit of I cord on these three stitches, then draw the working yarn through the loops and weave in the end.

Voila! super simple, super fast beret!

dinosaurs!

2009-12-06T16:19:00.001-06:00

This is an old project, but the second "quilt" I've done. It was for my nephew. My husband has two brothers, the youngest is a paleontologist, but the oldest has a child. The whole family has quite an appreciation for dinosaur-themed items, and since a lot of really cute stuff for babies is dinosaur-themed I think that any child in this family will have quite a collection.

Here was my first contribution:

It was very simple. Made with one yard each of two different fabrics, and cotton batting. The instructions came from "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted gifts", and this could certainly be made at the last minute! The instructions call for a different method of quilting, but I used a running stitch and did sort of a log cabin block design (no patchwork, just in the layout of the top stitching)

brussels sprouts deliciousness

2009-11-23T23:37:00.000-06:00

I didn't remember to take a picture, but this dish is gorgeous and colorful and was so tasty I'm writing it down so I don't forget what I whipped together.

I will be making this again, and eye-catching is a good way to describe it. There's sauce that's a little brownish, but you hardly notice it between the bright purple potatoes and the bright green sprouts and all the deliciousness. Plus if you don't count pepper as an ingredient (I don't count anything I always have), this comes in at six... and cooked up in a flash.

- 1 single serving carton of vegetable broth (or more if you're making for more than a very light dinner for two people, this is very scalable to larger or smaller, so let your eye be your guide)

- a splash of red wine

- a decent quantity of quality mushrooms (chantrelles were on sale, so this is what I was brainstorming around while shopping, gorgeous delicious yellow mushrooms, MMM)

- a few sprigs of thyme (was on display next to the mushrooms, kudos to whole foods for successful cross-merchandising)

- purple new potatoes cut into smallish cubes (I guess you could use a regular color, but it would be less of a visual show-stopper)

- brussels sprouts chopped into ribbons/bite sized pieces omitting the cores and the very center that's too dense to break into leaves

- black pepper or whatever other seasoning

method: heat the vegetable broth, red wine, mushrooms, and whole sprigs of thyme and some pepper until mix is just starting to simmer. Add the potatoes. Continue simmering until the consistency of gravy (add some water if it looks like that's going to happen before the potatoes are done). Add the brussels sprouts and toss to coat. This should just gently cook the sprouts until they are bright green and only slightly wilted. That's how I prefer them, but you could cook them longer. Take out the thyme sprigs and serve.

Since when was this a vegan cooking blog instead of a knitting blog? Oh well. My friend taught me how to spin using a drop spindle. It's fun and now I am fighting the urge to go buy a ton of spinning fiber. There, now that's quality crafting content!

Collard Green "Doritos"

2009-11-07T17:28:00.000-06:00

Seriously... another food dehydrator experiment... and somehow they came out tasting stunningly (and a little disturbingly) like I remember Doritos tasting (it's been a few yeas since I had the "genuine" article).

Ingredients:

Collard Greens - raw and cut into squares

raw cashew nut butter

lemon juice and water

nutritional yeast

curry powder

cayenne pepper

black pepper

Method:

put some cashew nut butter into the bottom of a small baking pan, add water and lemon juice and stir to dissolve. You're going for something the consistency of whole milk.

Add the yeast, curry, and peppers and mix well (consistency maybe closer to thinnish brown gravy. Drudge the collard squares through the mixture and then use your fingers to wipe them down so they are barely coated and not soggy at all. This reminded me of working with strips of newspaper and paper-mache. Arrange on dehydrator rack. Dehydrate. Mine went in at ~100 degrees, I put them in after dinner and they were ready after being in there overnight.

Results:

Delicious, light, and crunchy. Even cheesy tasting. If I were going for the Doritos flavor I got a little too much lemon juice and I might adjust some of the spices a little so it's not quite just straight curry. This convinced me of why folks say nutritional yeast tastes like cheese in that this totally reminds me of fake cheese powder coated stuff. While light and crunchy and similarly flavored, they do have a different mouth feel and kind of disintegrate shortly after hitting the tongue. Still, one of the tastiest and most interesting vegan preparations of collards I've ever had (not that I've had many)

yum yum yum!

Pumpkin Cookies

2009-11-07T11:01:00.000-06:00

I've been experimenting on and off with my food dehydrator and was particularly proud of my latest creations. I'm going to try them again to refine the recipes, proportions, and timing. The first are Pumpkin Cookies - with no sugar or flour!

Ingredients:

canned pumpkin, raw almonds, flax meal, dates, vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spices (in this case nutmeg, allspice, clove, cinnamon, and coriander)

Method: pulverize almonds into a meal in the food processor, add other ingredients one at a time (pumpkin last) and incorporate them into a thick mushy paste. Spread into cookie shapes and put in food dehydrator on sheets of parchment or the sheets that come with your dehydrator. Dehydrate until they somewhat resemble chewy cookies and keep their shape.

Results: delicious, but I kept waiting for the sweet sugary taste I associate with pumpkin pie to arrive since everything else was there. Also, someone told me a good way to get the dates to mix better (use water and make a date paste by itself instead of trying to blend them straight into almonds already ground into a meal) so that might help. I also might try adding some very ripe banana.

no idea what to do with this stuff

2009-11-03T21:09:00.000-06:00

Do you ever make things just to see if you can? What do you do with them? Here are some things I'm stuck on... they're neat... they were fun to do... but now what??

I thought... "Hey, I wonder how thin a thread I can crochet with? This sewing thread sure looks like fun. Also, I might as well stiffen it with some fabric stiffener too." Seriously. Now what do I do with it?? I was thinking of buying that resin stuff that you can pour and pour a puddle to encompass this and see if I can turn it into a pendant or something, but I don't think I'd wear it... so I'm stuck with this oddly miniature and completely hard as a rock doily. Made with variegated sewing thread. Woohoo!

Here's another one. I made it at the very very beginning of this year, not too long after I got the Inkle loom. I was thinking it could make a neat belt, but it's too thin. Right now I just have it sitting around just like my other inkle loom project, although that one gets more of a pass because it was to figure out how the loom worked and practice. All finished up and nowhere to go. This sucker is about 5 feet long.

Snowflakes in August in Texas!

2009-09-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

OK... not really, but when it's over 100 degrees out every day all summer, you want to do light easy fast projects that do not involve lots of wool sitting on your lap. And when you can't seem to focus on any one project for more than 40 minutes, it helps to find projects that can be done in... well... 40 minutes.

I've had a book called "Lacy Snowflakes" with 35 different crochet snowflake designs by Brenda S. Greer and I've been slogging through them. They are fun and fast, but blocking them sure does take a not-so-small ARMY of straight pins. I think I got it out of my system for now and am ready to work on a project I can't finish in one sitting. Back to that humongous pink lace shawl... I guess... :-)

But darn if they aren't fun to make... here they are all blocked and finished...

#11

#20

#29

#19

#30

#32

#14

I might have a short attention span for a single project lately, but that doesn't mean I can't spend two weeks or so stuck in a rut. Nothing to make me excited about working on my old projects again than being DONE with something else.

Plainweave Katia Colibri scarf finished!

2009-08-16T17:21:00.000-05:00

This was another fast-seeming weaving project... my guess is that weaving latley seems quick because I'm comparing it to how long it would take to knit something the same size using the same weight of yarn.

Anyway, this scarf exceeded my expectations on all fronts and I'm pleased as punch.

Woven in plain weave at 12 ends per inch, the scarf is just about 8" wide and nearly six feet long. The most challenging part was not beating the weft too hard, it needed a gentle and consistent hand to maintain the openness, although the thick and thin yarn also helps to disguise any minor inconsistencies.

I like the cross hatcing effect created by the thick and thin sections of warp and weft interacting and how it makes some areas solid and others translucent, the drape is also really nice.

For the finish I did the simplest one possible... I knoted the warp ends at both sides. I like that finish for scarves, since having a hem at the top and the bottom of a scarf just seems weird. Sometime I'll have to try hemstitching too, I've only done knotting and finishing the end on a sewing machine.

more details about those noro socks

2009-08-07T12:47:00.001-05:00

Making a matching pair of socks out of noro can be quite a challenge...

I’m pretty stunned I got a matching pair of noro socks…

I knit up the first sock without a care in the world… using a basic plain stockinette sock pattern I’ve pretty much memorized. When i got to the toe I realized I used pretty much exactly one repeat.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited. I started the second sock right away, all was going well until I got to the beginning of the green section. There was a knot in the yarn where it suddenly skipped from barely starting olive green straight through to nearly finished with lime green. Grr!!!

Thankfully I wasn’t going to use all the yarn and there looked to be a second set of olive through to lime green onwards in the ball. I wound off through the end of that repeat all the way through to where the dark green started again to continue the un-interrupted pattern… only now the green repeats were much longer than they were on the first sock. I wound out a large chunk of dark green to compensate, and again with a large chunk of the more medium greeen. Then the lime green section was much much shorter than on sock #1 and I added in more of that color from the section I’d cut out because of the knot.

So… thankfully this ball of yarn was enough for nearly three socks at the height I like them, otherwise I could never have cobbled together a matching pair…

I don't know if I'll ever try to do this again, on purpose, from the start. It would be an interesting exercise.

weaving... more plain weave... again :)

2009-08-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

I've started another weaving project... more plain weave again.

I'm using Katia Colibri, which is a thick and thin yarn, and it's giving the weaving an interesting effect so far. I plan on making this up as a scarf and giving it as a Christmas gift to my great aunt, who seems to like white accessories.

Here is what the warp looks like pre-weaving, which gives a good idea of the thick and thin nature of the yarn. It's 51% cotton, 45% acrylic, 4% nylon and 223 yards per 50 grams. Usually I prefer natural fibers, but I know that is less of a concern for my aunt.

Woven in plain weave with the yarn as both warp and weft at 12 ends per inch. I like the grid effect that the randomly placed thick and thin sections give.

Perfecto!

2009-07-27T11:49:00.000-05:00

Without too much trouble, my perfectly matching noro keureon sock yarn socks are done! Photos and details to come very soon. Two plane flights in two days = the perfect time to push through and finish socks. YAY!

The second sock really didn't want to match, but I made it happen. Take that you devious skein with a knot in it where two color repeats suddenly got skipped and the green repeat that wanted to be much longer than the one on the first sock, you did not defeat me! Good thing I wasn't counting on using ALL the yarn :) That sock yarn ball is probably plenty big enough for me to have made a whole nother sock (if I wanted a not matching third sock), and I have size 11 feet. I just don't like my socks terribly high up my legs, there's only so much wool a Texas winter requires.
:-) I'm happy.

Quick Bento Lunch

2009-07-07T21:48:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to remember to pack and bring my lunch to work more often and decided that if I'm going to get excited about doing that I need to jazz it up a bit. Last time I was successful in this it was by using a bento or similar small lunchbox and trying to figure out how to best get everything I needed in the confined space. Since it worked well last time I'm trying it again. I think what I like most is what I think of as the "jigsaw puzzle" aspect, not so much the food art... I'm into quick packing.

Anyway, I don't expect to put too many lunch pictures up here, but I thought this one looked good. It's some grilled chicken, sprouts, a chickpea salad (chickpeas, cucumbers, onion, tomato, olive oil, red wine vinegar, dill, pepper, salt), and a little container of almonds and cherry tomatoes. Also the perfect chance to use some CSA veggies.

I have been doing some fiendish knitting on the pink lace blob, but nothing exciting enough to warrant another round of pictures.

I will soon have some socks to share. I'm trying out some of the Noro sock yarn and making some plain top down socks. Turns out that by total chance I made the first sock EXACTLY ONE COLOR REPEAT LONG. You can't plan stuff like that, and I don't expect it will ever happen again. So it looks like I will have a perfectly matching pair of socks made from a single ball of Noro. I can still hardly believe it. I'll take pictures of the sock(s) in progress and get them posted soon, I've learned that I need to take advantage of light when I can, I just have to remeber that when the sun is still up.

Progress on the pink blob!

2009-06-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

I've picked up my grandma's shawl I'm working on for Christmas and I'm plugging away on it again. A refresher... this is the 1840 Sampler Shawl from the fabulous book Victorian Lace Today (Jane Sowerby). Here's my ravelry link (clicky-clicky).

I'm still enjoying the sampler format, it keeps it fresh. I've made enough triangular shawls to get a bit bored with them and want a change. I'm enjoying the rows that all stay the same length, instead of getting hopelessly and impossibly long as the shawl progresses.

To celebrate being 1/2 way done with the body of the shawl (that's the shawl excluding the knitted on border) I decided to lay it out on the carpet and see if I could get it to stay stretched out so I could have a look at it. I love lace, it's like magic when you get it all stretched out, and seeing it like this makes me that much more anxious to get it finished and blocked. I hope the enthusiasm sticks for a while. :)

Bonus, it looks like I might have enough yarn to do the border in this yarn, but if not, I'm OK with doing it in a different shade. I am, really, so, you know, I'm not tempting fate with my optimism. Not at all. Really.

Here's a detail on one of the lace patterns... it's so delicate! Two of the sampler patterns are patterned on both sides (instead of all purls on the wrong side). It's much more fiddly to do decreases like that in purl, and reading the knitting is a little harder for me that way because I'm less used to it, but the results are well worth it...

How many knitting days till Chrsitmas?

dishcloths complete!

2009-06-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

Remember that thing I said about weaving being much faster than knitting? I can't believe those dishcloths are DONE already. Wasn't it last week that I was just finishing up the first one? Anyway, now it's a matching set of four, off the loom, finished, washed, etc. Here is the Weavolution page for it!

I think I will always be surprised at how much unmercerized cotton shrinks, although it really wasn't all that much. The finished dimensions were about 15 X20 (not including a bit of fringe on the ends). Before taking them off the loom, they were measuring in at just over 17 wide by 22 inches long. I set everything up at 15 ends per inch and 18 inches wide, so overall I lost about 3 inches of width, but I still think I have some nice dishcloths in terms of size and porportion. I almost always forget to account for shrinkage, in pretty much any craft. You'd think I would have learned better by now. Ceramics should successfully teach that lesson to anyone, I must be really stubborn.

These were super fun, and I'm already planning the next project. Hopefully one that really lets me sink my teeth into something a bit more complicated. Given that I've been making everything in plain weave that shouldn't be too much of a stretch :)

I have to get back to knitting that big pink shawl for grandma, and there's my sister's christmas present to get to (from last christmas... doh! good thing I made a substitute fair isle hat when I gave up on finishing the sweater on time), and that pair of socks out of noro kureon sock I'm making for myself... perhaps weaving only goes fast because I am forced to stick to one project on the loom at a time?

speed weaving!

2009-06-06T02:05:00.000-05:00

OK... so I just recently started weaving, and I'm probably not that fast at it as far as weavers go... but I'm coming new to the craft after knitting and crochet. Man, does it seem to go fast. Two weeks ago I decided to make a set of dishcloths (probably for my sister, but I'm not sure) and after spending about a week on and off getting the warp measured and on the loom, a few days with a few on and off hours of work now have me almost done with the first cloth. It's plain weave with a bit of plaid/stripe at the edges. I like it. Eventually I'll have to do something with this fancy 8-shaft loom except for miles of plain weave (and a little bit of point twill) but for now I'm still thinking this is pretty awesome.

here's a little preview... I measured enough warp to make four of them. I think I'll use the inkle loom to make little hanging loops that match perfectly.

more of last year's projects

2009-02-03T08:20:00.000-06:00

I've been lax about uploading photos of my current projects. I have been busy, a pair of plain jane socks popped off the needles after I discovered a nearly completed sock in my knitting basket that I don't even remember making. I grafted the toe shut and knit a mate lickety split. Not sure when I made the first one, and it bugs the heck out of me that I can't remember.

So... here are some of last year's Christmas things.

These two little projects are both made from the same fabric. First one is a Christmas ornament I made from the scraps of the Apron shown below. I made about 10 of these little guys, and it's a great way to use up little scraps from a project with a fabric like this. The one thing I would have done differently is match up the fabric pattern for each of the different colors. I accidentally came pretty close to doing so, but unfortunatly it looks like I tried and messed it up. That's worse than it looking like you didn't try at all. :( But the project went over well with the recipient (I'm told, I wasn't there), so that's what counts in the end. Nobody is as picky about the things I make as I am.

This is a scarf I made for my grandma for xmas. I'm still very new to weaving, but I'm happy with this. And boy, let me tell you, was this thing fast! Weaving in worsted weight yarn is the weaving equivalent of knitting with super ultra bulky weight. This took just a few hours from start to finish! The yarns are both cotton/rayon blends and it's a point twill. By coincidence the way the weft was verigated made the pattern look like alternating light and dark zig zags. How neat is that! The first pic is still on the loom under tension. The scarf is a little on the short side because I didn't plan for quite as much shrinkage as I ended up with, but since it's pretty much to drape around your neck for fashion rather than warmth, AND my grandma is a good bit shorter than I am, it'll do just fine.

Speaking of Christmas gifts for my grandma, the pink lace shawl is coming along swimmingly. I'm almost done with the first half, then it's just the border. I don't think I am going to have enough of the yarn I bought to finish. I might do the border in another shade of pink. I'm thinking a really light pink would play well against the more vibrant pink in the body of the shawl. A different enough color to look like I did it on purpose, rather than similar enough to look like I messed up on dye lots.

Catching up feels great!

2009-01-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

My crafty librarian friend and I decided to have a craft weekend. We got together and worked on a lot of those little projects that are almost done that everyone has lying about. It was great fun. Here were my main accomplishments.

Finishing up this darn snowflake. I had fun making it, but was lagging behind on finishing it. I think it was the seemingly endless quantity of pins needed to keep it perfectly in place, since it really will stay that way. BTW... I've made a handful of these things in the last few years and I find that acrylic fabric stiffener is much preferable to starch. This stuff is awesome.

Making the Dino baby blanket. This is a very easy project. It's one yard each of two fabrics and cotton batting. It's from Last Minute Knitted and Patchwork Gifts. Only I didn't "tie" the quilt, instead I used my quilting guide to make a "log cabin" quilting design. I think I like this better with the dino fabric. Adding green dots might have distracted from the dots on the dinos.

Also, made some heddles and tried out my inkle loom for the very first time. I'm trilled with how quick it goes once it's all warped. Only thing, with bands so narrow, I'm going to need A LOT of practice on those selvedges!

Vanilla Pound Cake

2009-01-10T09:51:00.000-06:00

Made another recipe from my King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I must say, another winner. It was amazing. Check out that batter, delicious!

This time up was the Vanilla Pound cake. Subbed out 1/4 cup of the regular sugar with the tangerine sugar I'd made earlier. I dressed the cake up a bit with some stabilized whipped cream and fresh berries. My loaf pans are wider than standard, so the cake came out a little wider and flatter than usual, but I solved the problem by layering them atop each other with more berries and cream in the middle.

I don't know that much about baking and flour types and how they affect everything (which is part of why I'm doing all this baking), but the book said that the whole grain pastry flour was what made the texture on this so perfect. It was great, nice and dense, just like a pound cake should be. And delicious too. I'm sure the 8oz of sour cream didn't hurt anything either. :)

Weaving yarn stash created!

2009-01-09T10:52:00.001-06:00

I was, perhaps, a little overzealous at WEBS right after the new year, but with great results!

I now have a good quantity of both mercerized and unmercerized cotton that will shortly become some woven dishcloths and shawls. Ooo Pretty! I'm just learning to weave, so it may be slow going (the yarn is SO THIN!), but I'm up for the challenge.

The box arrived yesterday. Hubby says that when he picks up a box of yarn and says "ooh... this is heavy" that he knows I ordered A LOT of yarn. But seriously, they sell it in one pound cones, and if you want to make your sister a set of three dishcloths with three colors each... you see where I'm coming from.

Oh, and I made another recepie from the cookbook. Photos and stuff to follow.

Getting ahead

2009-01-05T20:00:00.000-06:00

Do you have any relatives who love receiving handmade gifts but proclaim everything is too nice to use? I do, it's my grandma. A few years ago I made her a Kiri shawl (pdf, my ravelry). I now hear it's gone missing. I'm sure she's heartbroken. I've seen how grandma treats these things I make her. I would not be surprised if she carried around a box and a plastic bag so it would be "safe" in the box. I think this caution is the cause of its downfall. I've decided to take this as the best opportunity to make her a new one. If she has two, then perhaps temporarily misplacing one will not be as traumatic.

I'm making the 1840 Sampler Shawl from Victorian Lace Today . Blogging about lace is a little uneventful since it's all going to look like a big shapeless pink blob until it's done (my ravelry has a few more pink blob pictures). Here it is in all its lumpy shapeless glory. I'm liking the "sampler" format so far. Most of the shawls I've done have been like Kiri, a triangle where each row gets longer and longer and longer and I get bored with the pattern. I'm digging the rows that stay the same length and the pattern that keeps changing. We'll see about that applied border though. I've only done one, and it was much much smaller.

snowman ball ornament

2009-01-04T09:18:00.001-06:00

Isn't he cute? Just a little quick think I whipped together yesterday (after xmas, I know).

I'm thinking of making a "snowman" as a gift next year, I'm picturing three separate ornaments so that they are like a disassembled snowman. Not sure what to do about the top hat though. A fourth ornament or attached to the head??

Baked Goods

2009-01-04T00:24:00.001-06:00

One of my projects I've taken on this year is to do a lot more baking. I really want to improve my skill. Because everyone has to start somewhere, I received a copy of the King Arthur Flour book Whole Grain Baking as a gift and I'm slowly working my way through as many of the recipes as I can. So far I'm up to about 10 recipes and they've all been great.

My biggest success so far has been the shortbread (Scottish Shortbread p. 332), where the main grain is oatmeal ground in a food processor. I made one major change to the recipe though... I used sugar that I'd mixed with tangerine zest in the food processor (instructions here). The results were fantastic! The book suggests using orange to accentuate whole grain flavor in other recipes, so it came to mind as a natural fit and a great way to use all the extra sugar mix I had leftover from making other holiday gifts. I love the big boxes of tangerines you can only find during the holidays and this is a great way to use them.

The delicious shortbread got packed up and labeled with a label I created in good old MS Word and went to the neighbors for New Years.

Ok... so only about 2/3rds of it went to the neighbors. Shortbread is a hubby favorite. This recepie definitly gets a stellar review from us!

2x2 Ribbed Hat (Triangle on top!)

2009-01-03T09:42:00.002-06:00

Who doesn't love a good 2x2 ribbed hat? I know I do. Plus, they are the perfect gifts. They are stretchy, so they'll fit almost everyone without worrying about size, and they are an easy way to get creative in the details. Here's a simple variation I made for my hubby for Christmas. I'm pretty sure that if you did stripes the top would look like concentric triangles! How neat is that?

2x2 Ribbed triangle hat:

Yarn: Worsted Weight (shown in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Franklin's Panopticon colorway, used 1 skein with significant leftovers)

Needles: US7

Gauge: not too crucial due to stretchiness, I used recommended needle size and am not a tight or a loose knitter. Adjust accordingly.

Cast on 120 Stitches in your favorite method. I like long tail in Knit and Purl to make a reversible edge for the ribbing, or you could do all knit and pick which side you like best.

Join to knit in the round. Note, if you did a standard long tail or other non-reversible cast on, choose which side of the cast on you like best. If you're doing a folded brim, the side you like should be on the inside, if you're not, put the side you like on the outside.

Work in K2 P2 ribbing for anywhere between 6 and 10 inches (depending on how much of a folded brim you want, as shown I went a full 10 inches). Remember, the bigger the head, the more the ribbing has to stretch. That makes the hat shorter. If you are making it for someone with a bigger head than you, knit for longer than you would for your own head.

Crown Decreases:

Place markers in three evenly spaced K2 ridges (since you have 12o stitches, there will be 30 K2 ridges, your markers should be every 10th ridge). By "in the ridge" I mean in between the two knit stitches that make up the ridge.

Decrease Round: Work in ribbing until two stitches before first marker, K2tog, slip marker, SSK. Continue to work in ribbing around, decreasing in this same way at the next two markers.

Rounds 1&2: Work Decrease Round

Round 3: Work even in established ribbing (Knit the knits and purl the purls)

Rounds 4&5: Work Decrease Round

Round 6: Work even in established ribbing (Knit the knits and purl the purls)

Rounds 7-12: Work in same order as Rounds 1-6

Rounds 13+: Work Decrease Round every round until 6 stitches remain.

Break yarn, pull through remaining stitches.

Weave in ends.

What am I doing anyway?

2009-01-03T09:37:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure where to begin with a blog, mostly I want somewhere I can keep track of my crafting and perhaps help/inspire/communicate with others. Isn't that what this whole blog thing is about?

I was recapping what I accomplished last year (in and out of craft-land) and kept coming across little projects I'd forgotten about. That's no good, I need to keep better track. The other day I forgot what I'd made my grandma for christmas and almost made her almost exactly the same thing! No good.

So here goes... a chronologically organized way to keep track of all it is I craft. :)