Baby gift and sister's bday.

This blanket was made for the baby of an old, dear friend. Her baby was born in late July - very healthy and lovely. I loved this pattern when I saw it on the Purl Bee blog. I especially loved the seed stitch version, which is the one I used. I don't normally go for the yarn they use on the Purl blog because they are usually rather extravagant, yet luxurious. I couldn't resist this yarn - it's organic cotton and the softest yarn I've ever worked with (yarn details are in pattern - link above). The Spud & Chloe yarn also comes in amazing colors - I loved this bright orange color so much! For the edging, I searched and read around on people's blogs to find general instructions for a shell or fan edge on a blanket. My method for this type of thing is to decide how large/long I want the fan to be (matching the size of the overall project), then adjust around the corners as necessary to make a longer fan come around each corner. Basically, a fan on either side of a corner may need to be shorter or longer to make the corner fan occur at just the right place. Hopefully that makes sense - it's not an exact science by any means (for me, anyway).

The cute little piggy I found at a booth of Renegade Brooklyn with Danielle last summer. I only mailed the blanket to my friend around Thanksgiving (running a bit behind as usual), so have been hanging onto the piggy since then. I should know and report the name of the vendor, but I apologetically can't recall. There are several other great baby blanket patterns on the Purl blog site that I'm planning to try out soon - the stork is returning in the spring and then again in the summer among our friends.

I made this hat for my sister's birthday. It's made with Lorna's Laces Swirl Chunky ("Watercolor" colorway, I believe). It was the first hat I crocheted, and it was trying for many reasons... I can't seem to find the pattern link anymore - I was using the Droid in the car to search for patterns. Doesn't matter really, since the pattern wasn't good at all - I ripped out and started over three times before the sizing was right (much too large initially) and didn't even end up following the same stitch pattern. In the end, I used the pattern to get an idea of how to design the top and crown of the hat, then went rogue from there. I have a habit of just winging it with hats, which works most of the time with a knitted hat if you do just a bit of math up front, but this one was definitely a learning experience - with no method to my madness. I was happy with how the whole thing ended up and really loved the edging - seemed to tone down the color just enough and make it look more finished.

The edging is a worsted weight wool yarn - pretty standard spin with a gorgeous dye, but I can't recall the brand - picked it up at a yarn store, Broad Ripple Knits, in Indianapolis that I love visiting when we pass through. It's a really cute shop with a good yarn selection and in a great neighborhood - college area with fun shops, cafes, bars, breweries, etc. We've been to the Broad Ripple Brewpub twice now and enjoy their beers - they also have great food. We normally try to add in some couple fun to our holiday family vacationing, and have stopped through Indianapolis for a night the past two years on the way to or from Wisconsin to visit my mom's side of the family. This year, we also stopped in Cincinnati to visit from friends and that city is amazing! If it wasn't so dang cold in the winter, it would make it on a list of cities where I think I could live.

Wow. Ok, so this post pretty much catches me up to the recent holiday crafting, so that will be coming up very soon. Exciting. :)

Bread and Stew.

This post is a bit mismatched, since the bread pic is from the summer and the stew pic is from this recent holiday season. Oh well.

The purpose ties them together, which is that I love food. Love cooking. Last summer I started to get into baking bread and made some progress just before a new dimension in my life was begun, and I took a hiatus from bread-baking, crafting, cooking, blogging, etc. to focus on something new for about six months. Before all that, I read Amy's Bread by Amy Scherber (well, a good bit of it anyway) and borrowed Bread Alone by Dan Leader from Tim (which I still have and may be pushing the limits of the term borrow). Tim is an excellent bread-maker, so as I get more into the craft, I will continue to bounce ideas off him and see what he's experienced.

I really enjoyed trying the autolyse (resting period amidst the kneading and rising) that is championed in most bread books. I also tried the pan of water in the oven, but didn't mist as some people recommend. I thought this made a wonderful crust, but had tried so many things, it was hard to tell what made these loaves turn out so great... but they did and it was really exciting! Tim shared that he hasn't experienced a noticeable crust improvement from the water-in-oven technique, so who knows what really made the difference - will require more experimentation. :D

We've been making homemade pizza dough for a while now, which is really simple, and have tried several bread recipes with unimpressive results. This was a whole-grain bread with walnuts and it turned out amazing - I was proud enough of it to share a loaf with a new neighbor as a welcoming gift. One thing the recipe (from Amy's book) recommended was to let the loaves rest in the fride overnight after kneading the nuts to allow the nut oils to permeate the dough and give the bread a nuttier flavor. I did this and don't know how much nuttier that made it since I had no reference point, but it was nice and nutty, and Tim has mentioned that in his opinion any bread will turn out nicer after at least a night hanging out in the frige. All that said, I hope to dive more into the art of bread-making this year and share more hits and misses. :)

I heart soups and stews and cold weather that makes it feel right to slow cook a big pot of anything and fill the kitchen with the incredible aromas. It's so fun to throw all kinds of yummy things into a pot, cook it all down, spice it all up, and have a hearty meal. I usually freeze part of the batch for later and we'll eat the rest through the week, mixing small bowls with different wraps or sammies to mix it up a little, but the first meal is usually just a big bowl o' stew.

My SO's parents gave me this nice stew pot for Christmas and this is the first meal I made in it the very next week. It's a really great pot that can do double-duty in the oven, if desired. I partly followed a celery stew recipe, but really only used it for inspiration, since a friend brought me a bunch of celery and a head of cabbage from her farmer's market basket that she knew she wouldn't get around to using. In this stew is a pound of ground sirloin, a bunch of celery, a half head of cabbage, a few carrots that were in the frige, a whole onion, a can of crushed tomatoes, and some veggie stock. The main flavor of this stew for me is the cabbage, which I really enjoy. The beautiful thing about stews is how free-form they are, just go for it and throw anything you like in the pot - it'll turn out rich, hearty, and super tasty.

Birthdays '09.

Several birthday gifts were crafted in spring / summer of '09. I quite characteristically didn't get pics of everything before wrapping and sending, so this is just a sample. :)

The zipper pouch is actually one I kept - made another at the same time for Kristin and stuck some jewelry inside - a bracelet that I didn't get photographed. Her birthday was in March - the big 4-0. ;-)

The fabric used for the pouch shown is Joel Dewberry. I bought a zipper pouch at Renegade Brooklyn with Danielle last summer and discovered a much simpler way to sew the pouch without sewing the lining by hand - much too slow for me. It completely simplifies the process and creates a 5-minute zipper pouch! Awesome. I just used a rotary cutter / mat to cut four pieces of fabric at once - two for the outside and two for the lining, then ironed under a hem one side side of each piece (to be the top). Next, sew the lining pieces to the underside of the zipper. Then, sew the outer pieces to the topside of the zipper. Last, align all four fabric pieces so that the outer ones have right sides together and the lining pieces have their right sides facing out so you can see them. Sew all the way around and through both sides of the zipper, trim fabric and zipper pieces, flip right side out, and Voila - finito!

This wallet is from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing. I know I talk about this book a lot, but sheesh, it's such a good book with great projects. The instructions are not always the most clear, but there's a flickr group where notes, tips, errata, etc. are shared and discussed - can't beat that. So, the wallet was really fun to make and fairly simple - just a lot of steps. The flickr group is really a must with most of the projects in this book - in the case of this wallet, people pointed out that the dimensions should be adjusted slightly to properly fit your ID and/or plastic. I also kept checking this dimension while positioning the pockets and testing the folds.

I found some sew-on snaps in the sewing machine cabinet I recently acquired from my grandmother and gave it my best shot, but I attached the snap after the rest of the wallet was finished and it should really be incorporated at an earlier step to make the sewing easier and the snap more solidly attached. I was afraid that lining up the snap pieces would be frustrating, so opted to add it last. Next time I will think more about how to add it to the raw fabric pieces early on. This wallet was for Jenny's birthday in June. Included was a necklace that I was really proud of, but again forgot to take a pic.

These coasters were a super cute project I saw on the Purl Bee blog - creations of the Purl Soho creative people. Danielle and I visited their stores while in NYC for Renegade and it was so incredible to see them in person. There's a fabric store with a yarn store next door. The colors and displays are amazing to see.

The coaster pattern was for knit and crochet, but I only made the crochet pattern because I liked them better and have been loving crochet lately. The tops are a simple pattern that naturally roll up on the edges, but they need to be blocked before attaching to the fabric bottoms. That's what this picture is showing - I just pinned down the tops in the desired shape and sprayed them with a water & tea tree oil solution.

For the bottoms, you can use little pretty fabric scraps. I mix-matched different fabrics with the different colored tops. Each bottom has two fabric scraps, since one will show on the very bottom and one will show through a bit through the crocheted

top. Arrange fabric pieces with right sides together, sew around the edge leaving an opening, trim if necessary, and flip right side out through the opening you left. Easy-peasy. Then, iron and pin to the crocheted top piece. For these coasters, I used a sewing machine for this part going around a small circle in the center, then going around another circle close to the outer edge. This was tres difficult pour moi. Next time, I would definitely use embroidery thread to attach the tops to the bottoms, but however you have luck and enjoy the process more, go for it. I tend to lean toward the machine, when possible, because I guess I'll admit that I don't so much like hand sewing, but I don't mind it when it's the best method and sometimes even enjoy the relaxing and mobile aspect of hand sewing - you can take it anywhere. Anyway, these turned out perfectly fine for me, but were a touch sloppy because I wasn't that impressive with my machine circles. :) Oh! and these coasters were for our lovely friend, Sara, who had a big 4-0 party in DC last August. We were so very happy to be there with her to celebrate.