Kimchi, Bread and Butter Pickles (cukes with onions and celery), Rhubarb Liqueur, Grapefruit Rhubarb Marmalade

I went all out this time – I pulled the jumbo canning pot from the garage and kept going until I ran out of jars.

I made: Dilly Beans, Dill Pickles, Bread & Butter Pickles, Caraway (Purple) Cauliflower, Spiced Figs, Dill Pickled Okra, Random Dilled Leftover Vegetables from the Fridge.

Favorite canning reference materials in no particular order:

– Ball Blue Book of Canning I think I bought this at the store at the same time I bought my canning pot, but I am not quite sure. It has fantastic recipes and very thorough instructions for the beginner.

– Mustards, Pickles and Chutneys I got this at Half Priced books a long time ago. All of the measurements are metric, and I re-evaluate the acidity/preserving capability of each recipe because I think many of them were written for refrigerator storage.

– Summer in a Jar: Making Pickles, Jams, and More.. Genius book that has single-jar recipes. The smallest batch possible! I don’t have a full review of this yet, but the method involves adding many more spices directly to the jar than I am accustomed to. I am used to simmer ing the spices with the vinegar, and only adding a small selection of spices to the jar. I wonder if these recipes will be dramatically different in flavor….

Favorite local places to get canning supplies. In particular order with my favorite first:

1) Ace Pasttime Hardware, El Cerrito. Nice selection all year long. Ask an employee to show you where the canning supplies are, otherwise you could get lost in the maze of aisles.

2) The store formerly known as Big Longs (now converted to CVS). Tons of supplies all year, and open late! For your midnight jam sessions….

3) Berkeley Bowl. They have some canning supplies tucked under the produce. Limited selection that was totally picked over and not replenished by the end of October. But it is handy to get your dill heads and jars at the same place.

The next time you see it, I will be wearing it at Stitches.

Thanks to Jamie at Urban Fauna Studio (booth #1036) and Krista from Pigeonroof Studios (booth #637), I am not just a Stitches West shopper, I am a seller! UFS has both my stitch markers and fiber, and Pigeonroof will have my stitch markers. Yay! I am really excited about this and plan to break some rules and snap some camera phone pics of my items on display. I am headed to stitches tomorrow and Saturday and will be helping out in the aforementioned booths so say hi if you see me. Also I will be doing a Hazel Rose loom demo on Saturday at 1 pm in the Demo area so come by if you want to see a little loom in action. I plan to tweet my adventures, so follow me for pics and updates.

Note to self: Go to Target tonight to stock up on “Adult Juice Boxes.”

As a wee crafter, I spent many a holiday working on little holiday needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns that my mom hoarded during after-christmas sales. The first step (and the one that drove me INSANE when I was young) is to baste the edges of the canvas to prevent fraying. I dreaded doing it, but it was not nearly as tedious as I remember (can I possibly be more patient than when I was 8?). The next step was always to take of the thread from the project and attach to a yarn organizer. Miner were always butterfly shaped. Did anyone ever have one that WASN”T a butterfly? Anyway, i realized that this would be the step to stop adult-me in my tracks. I didn’t have a yarn organizer. With nothing to do all day but craft, and an awesome idea from Carmen, i decided to make my own.

i whipped out a sheet of Brown shrinky-dink plastic and threw together a retro-fabulous sketch of an owl. I planned out where to place holes that I could punch with my circular craft punches.

I made it the size of the entire sheet of plastic, and then cut it out (note pen for scale)

Then I popped it into the toaster oven at 300 until it shrank up (i used chopsticks to pull apart any areas that got stuck during shrinking).

I am really pleased with the holes of varying size – it is very satisfying to put the fat wads of yarn in the bigger holes, and the thread in the tiny holes. I added a rare earth magnet (with E6000 glue) to the center to hold on to needles, and then I got busy!

So busy, in fact, that I completed the whole thing!

The project was a new in package 1972 Caron Crewel 5 x 7 (#6306). The yarn was all wool (in some of the older projects the included yarn is acrylic) and the instructions were thorough. Highly recommended!

Some things I want to do…

• Make hard tack candy – I love clove candy canes and I can’t find them anywhere out here. I used to make hard tak candy all the time, and this year I am really jonesing for some cinnamon and clove. (Separate, not mixed together).
• Make a tiny japanese santa Found via Mochimochiland. Hmmm… the link seems to have disappeared now, but I downloaded a free cute santa pattern (yes, I said cute santa) from the website of designer Gera, but it is gone now…. Sorry I can’t share!
• Work on a vintage crewel pattern How I acquired these is a story for another day. Let’s just say I have several vintage crewel patterns new in the package that I have been dying to try.





• Spin some fiber It is taking over my apartment and must at least be tamed into yarn.





• Major gocco project – top secret. Involves so much work it doesn’t really sound fun right now.
• Take a trip to the East Bay Depot This would likely be counterproductive as I would probably end up with more material or partially completed craft projects, but I haven’t been in so long and I wonder what they have.

Not that I promise to stick to your suggestion… but I might! I can’t decide where to start. What do you think?

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Through the wonders of the internet, an intrepid knitter has at his/her needletips an amazing selection of sock yarns. The indie dyeing community is expanding everyday with beautiful new color combinations and dyeing techniques. I do a little dyeing myself, and I am usually on a tight budget. This makes justifying yarn purchase a difficult task. If I spring for a $20 pair of socks (that might spend a very long time as yarn) it has to be something good. I have two favorites that I can justify purchasing at almost any time: Socks that Rock and indie-dyed self-striping yarn. You have probably already heard about Socks that rock, so let’s talk about some of my favorite indie-stripers.

Lovesticks

Lovestick’s yarn makes an awesome striping pattern using three colors… Two colors make wide stripes separated by a thin stripe of a third color. Here – just look:

Photo from Flickr user Sock-a-holic

And my favorite thing about her shop… she has Sport-weight yarn. Perfect for a quick pair of socks.
Ravelry Yarn Page

Twisted

I first found Twisted on etsy, but she has since graduated to her own site. There is always a wide variety of base yarns available from sport weight SW merino to merino/bamboo or merino/tencel blends. I like nearly every colorway that Meg has produced, and I don’t think there is anything else like her subtle striping effect. Now she even has coordinating mini-skeins of heel and toe yarn available with come of her colorways.

Photo from flickr user Meg of Twisted

I use the Twisted Ravelry group to stay in the loop about shop updates and fiber clubs.
Ravelry Yarn Page

i have too many favorites for one post, so stay tuned for one more installment

I haven’t ripped it out since I didn’t know quite what I would do instead.

Now I have an idea… Inspired by the multitudes of fantastic hexagon blankets on Ravelry () and in the Hexagon love flickr pool, I want to make one too.

I’ve got the book, so I gave it a try…

I think I am going to rip out the ripples and proceed with the hexagons. I am not going to aim as high as a queen sized blanket – more of a throw. And if I change my mind, I can easily add more hexes to the end and/or sides.

But, what do you think?
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I am kinda on a scratchy wool kick right now. Is this something that typically happens in your evolution as a spinner? I mean I know there is that early stage where you spin big fat thick and thin, wishing you spin a fine yarn. Then you can spin a VERY fine yarn and yearn for the thick and thin days, and then you have to actually teach yourself what you are doing…. And stuggle back to thick yarn. Seems like with the fibers for a long time I was on a quest for something ever softer and finer, and more challenging to spin. The yak and silk and camel satiated that desire, and now I just want to try all manner of scratchy crazy wools.

The Welsh roving has big fat hairs that pop up every once in a while (not unlike the California red). It is kind of a challenge to not let it all fall out when I am spinning it. It is pretty suited to worsted spinning (shoving the fiber at the wheel), but I am a long draw addict and was determined to make it work. So we are getting along. While I am spinning test yarns to decide if I can get away with a single ply yarn for the mitten project, I started on the dyeing.

I did between 2 and 3 ounces of each color (the brown is natural), and I hope it is enough…. Now I am really excited.

I’ve done a little knitting

Ravelry Project Page

A little spinning

California Red locks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Raverly page

and…. i adopted a kitty! Introducing… Bean!

She’s mouthy (like me). This last picture is a video…. Click through to hear Bean!

insane number of kitty pics in my flickr stream.

Patterns I have been eyeing (Most links are Ravelry links – sorry. The waiting list is only 2 days long – hurry up and join):

– Anything from the Selbuvotter book ($24.95)

For example, NHM #9:

Or NHM #10:

Order this directly from the author like I did. It arrives quickly!

–Okka By from Randi K. Design ($7)

Her chart for a tiny little knitting village in Norway captures an amazing amount of detail. I am also impressed with the little crab that pops up on the other side…

All of her designs are amazing, so be sure to check out her etsy shop.

– Baske by Nicole Hindes ($6)
Simple enough for a beginner, but truly gorgeous! I love the yellow color that she chose.

– Hello Yarn’s amazing fiddlehead mittens. ($5.95)




I saved this for last cause I have big plans for this one. Adrian makes kits of hand-dyed yarn to go with the knitting pattern. As far as I can tell, it would be impossible for me to ever score one of those rare gems. I love her suggestion of using something for the outside that is durable and has a little mohair in it… So I am challenging myself to dye and spin all of the yarn that I will need for this project. Truly ambitious, I know, but I give myself until this winter to get it done. Wish me luck!