susan b made

dreaming of swans for dessert

2011-10-24T13:09:00.008-04:00

I looked out my windows this morning to see a group of swans on our placid lake. Two things occurred to me: 1) the spectacularness of our Fall color was probably diminished by the rain this year (boo!),

and 2) when I see the swans floating on the surface of the lake with their bills tucked into their wings I think of the floating island recipe, technically probably Oeufs a`la neige. (I apologize for not knowing where the properly accented a and e's are on my keyboard.) I remember making Creme Anglaise in one of my many Pastry classes and talking about, but not actually poaching the meringues/swans that float in the soupy custard. Not sure, but I know I had the dessert in Paris decades ago.

Today, photograph the swans and just dream of Oeufs a la neige.

McQueen

2011-07-12T11:21:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I ventured into Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit. A friend of mine works there and has been encouraging me to come in and take advantage of their Monday visitor pass. Time was running out for the show and I had to commit. I was totally unaware of him and I'm not a fashionista, as proof I'm typing this in my Teva flip flops, $5 Danskin tee and red shorts of undeterminable age. I did zero research beforehand, so the show was an utter surprise.

Brilliant move, not knowing anything about him because I was amazed. Stunned by the excruciating beauty of his work. It was sculpture --- it was a dramatic and intimate theatrical staging of an open diary. Evocative, heartbreaking, sad. It left a lump in my throat as I walked through the several rooms of display. Expert tailor, draper, showman, romantic.

I was so knocked out after walking through the show that we just sat quietly outside the McQueen chapel. We went back in a second time. I focused on the pieces that attracted me the most---his tailored jackets from his master's show, a few of the pieces in the accessory room and several of the gowns in the glass cases. Whoa!

Opted for the book from the show instead of the refrigerator magnets (horror!) to try to hold onto this experience in some way. I've since skimmed through the book, took a couple of quick shots for the blog post and intend to sit down with it to find our more.

As I left the Met I was still somewhat suspended in time and place. I had a list of places to stop, so I hopped on the M4 bus and forged on to my next destination, the Magazine Cafe on W 37th. As I walked out of their storefront I saw the Tinsel Trader, though it didn't seem right somehow. I walked in and realized there had been a big change in layout or something. I perused the Tinsel Trading parallel universe and hurried on towards Penn Station,wondering what had happened since I was last there. And when was I last there?

Making one more stop on W 36th when I saw many, many of rolls of ribbon in the window. Shindo is the store. Tons of ribbon, huge palette of colors, giant array of textures. I picked up this linen/cotton ribbon with red stitching (Sheila!). Just didn't have anything else in mind, but I'll make sure I do next time I'm in the garment district.

Hurried into Penn Station just missing a train, but 15 minutes later I was seated in a cool train car with my current knitting dilemma in my lap on my way home. Mind still reeling with McQueen visions. It's not a show for everyone. But I would recommend it.

Thanks so much Cheryl.

What was I thinking?

2011-06-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

Generally I don't take requests from the peanut gallery for blog posts, but my Mother suggested that I recount a craft-related incident, not only to her over the phone twice and in email with pictures but here too, in the blogsphere. She insists and her birthday was last week.

First though I must share the only inspiration that has almost made me almost post since December. Two weeks ago, I found a phenomenal specimen in the 5 lb bag of organic carrots I'd hauled home from the grocery store. I suppose if I was a vegetable gardener this would not be so special, but since I'm not and never will be...I have to share it with other non-vegetable gardeners.

There in my supply of organic carrots was one to be treasured, not juiced or roasted. It happened to be a two-legged carrot. As I am easily amused by mutant vegetables, it occurs to me that I should capture it on film for posterity, like the other mutant vegetables of history. Either it was overcast or I didn't have time to set up the tripod or I was too hungry. Who knows? Instead I scrubbed it, wrapped it and put it in a place of honor in the refrigerator to be ready for that moment with better available light for photography or possibly thinking that I would forget altogether and not embarrass myself, by giving it a name and taking a picture of it or by making carrot trousers for it and then taking a picture of it.

Okay, on with the main event of the blog post, to the more embarrassing moments that my Mom will find entertaining.

Recently I started to knit a baby sweater. A sweet little baby sweater for an innocent babe recently born. A cabled yoke sweater in a toasty fine golden yellow yarn was coming along nicely, relatively problem free, just about to enter into the cruise phase where you can knit and just measure and not read charts...

Then on one fateful tv-less evening I started to pick up my plastic seethrough knitting bag to tackle the last few chart-reading rows only to find a black spider settled in on the skein of yarn! I'm not a spider fan (Ugh!)and I really don't like seeing them on my sweet baby yarn. And well, earlier in the day I had been tormenting a thin column of marching ants on the floor with my Dyson vacuum because I don't have cats to torment them, it was handy.

My husband who is reading nearby and unwilling to save me from the spider says, Get the vacuum! In jest, I pick up the business end of the hose, replace the brush attachment with the infinitely more deadly crevice tool and press the on switch. Delicately I retrieved the knitting on the needles out of the bag and shoved the crevice tool in, quickly sucking it's way to the bottom of the bag! From my disadvantage point I couldn't see that I was sucking sweet baby yarn up and not the spider. I hear this voice shouting, Turn it off, turn it off! I did.

I had flung the knitting on the needles across the room to save it from the spider and the vacuum was now off. All I could tell was that yarn had gone into the crevice tool, not how much yarn had disappeared. I yanked on the strands to free them from the Dyson's grip. (One reason this is particularly painful is that I hate this vacuum. It is weighty, unwieldy and from the moment it entered the house I've been dedicated to hating it.) The surprised husband pulled the vacuum away from me and faced it towards the door, I think, because he could see how much yarn had accumulated in the seethrough canister and was sure I'd go uberballistic when I realized it.

How stupid could you be? It was late. I shouldn't even have thought about picking up knitting that needed your full attention at such a late hour or the vacuum. Whatever.

When I retrieved the cabled yoke from it's landing spot it bore no spider evidence. That voice is saying to me, will you have enough yarn to finish it? That's when I read the pattern. Apparently I'd overlooked the page where the required yardages were plainly written. Plainly written. The size I'd chosen required 110 gr of yarn. I only had 100 gr. of hand-dyed sweet baby yarn in toasty golden yellow. Double Ugh.

The next morning I grabbed the Dyson and ejected the canister. At this point I finally realized how much yarn had been sucked into the canister. Adding insult to injury.

I pulled it out in a tangled mess, wound it in a ball, made it into a hank and soaked it for hours in a bath of scented wool soap. The half-finished baby sweater, the sucked-up yarn and I have all recovered from the incident. I don't much care about the Dyson.

The lessons here are many. Read your pattern thoroughly, first. Don't do high maintenance knitting late at night. Don't fool around with the crevice tool, late at night....

Happy belated Birthday Mom!

craftmas

2010-12-24T15:45:00.000-05:00

The elves have knocked off early here. Craftmas activities have subsided. The last delivery was made yesterday. Provisions for a cozy weekend by the fireplace are in place. Plenty of food options were gathered (chicken soup for the elf with a cold), sufficient wood for the fireplace, digital connections tested and secured---what more could these elves ask for?

World peace, first. Second, that our families were just minutes away and not transcontinental plane rides away.

Merry Christmas!

knitting and shrinking things

2010-12-14T12:30:00.002-05:00

For my birthday in October, I received a really cool project bag that a friend knit, felted (technically, the term is "fulled") and filled with a skein of yarn from her stash that I coveted. She included several really helpful knitting accessories which I put to good use right away. Aside from being a great gift it was also an inspiration. Thank you Cheryl! (If you're interested the pattern is available here.)

It started me thinking about my felted knit experiments from last winter. (Don't worry I'm not making slippers again!) I dug them out from their secure location in the garage and they spawned more knitting and shrinking experiments.

First, I was compelled to make a cover for my iPod. Covering it in wool was more important than actually mastering the use of it. When I acquired it in a birthday frenzy there were no lime green covers at the Apple store! I know, how could that happen? Under pressure, I selected a turquoise and orange cover which I now think is probably for a Miami Dolphins fan (I'm not even sure what sport they play, but I do know where Miami is.) That's beside the point.

I had an acorn design in mind and thought that making an aCorn for my iPod was just oh so funny! I knit a pile of acorn samples, using knitting techniques from sock and hat constructions. It took several generations to determine what gauge knitting would work with the fulling process to create the fabric I was looking for.
They're not all candidates for iPod covers and as yet there is no truly lime green sample, but there are several combo's I like.

The one that did become the iCozy was from the first generation of samples. I knit it's acorn cap with a buttonhole for one of my buttons. Found the perfect thread, maybe too perfect, and constructed the button.

Stuck it on and decided that I needed to search in my vintage buttons for an alternative to the perfectly matched thread that rendered it unseeable.

Vintage won! Ta dah! The winning iCozy combo!

I'm writing a recipe to knit an iCozy. Takes almost no yarn. It's quick to knit. And most importantly, it's fun to intentionally shrink your knitting! It is adaptable in the felting/fulling stage to fit similiar mobile devices. Hope to post it soon, but I've got more knitting and shrinking projects in the works too!

ruby red

2010-12-02T21:50:00.010-05:00

3:56pm

3:56pm

4:02pm

4:03pm

Glorious ruby red beads decorate our Korean Ash in today's light-

is it really Dec 1?

2010-12-01T17:07:00.009-05:00

I've been reminded by friends that I haven't posted since May! May 2010? Are you sure?

I know you have all missed reading my kitchen appliance rants. But this Thanksgiving went off without a hitch, because I tricked my oven. I turned it on Wednesday morning and didn't turn it off until the last item was baked Wednesday evening! I'm pretty sure there's a code in the computer of this Kitchenaid range that prompts random holiday crisis. Thanksgiving Eve 2010 was not on the list, thankfully!

The report I have to make today is in the local interest category. When I was on the road a couple of months ago I reset my Google news headline thingie to my own zip code on my laptop. I'm still surprised by Calverton headlines when I open the Google news page(duh!). Just before Thanksgiving there was a headline leading to an article about the Kent Animal Shelter needing donations for the winter.

I'm a dog lover. Last Fall we lost our all-time favorite boy, a lab/mystery mix, Louie (our all-time favorite boy in his weight category--just have to qualify that for our beloved Archie, in the miniature category). He was a rescue dog. A pain in the butt for the first year we had him, but he turned out to be our best dog ever. When I became aware of the needs of the local shelter I was determined to do something for their homeless dogs and cats.

I read the Kent Shelter list and decided to venture out on Black Friday to see what I could do. The last place I would have imagined I'd be on any Friday morning would be at Walmart, but towels were on the list and theirs were a great deal. The place was not the retail nightmare I thought it would be at 7 am, so I was able to score a shopping cart full of towels while everyone else was loading their carts with whatever the electronic thing is this year.

Inspired by the tower of towels success I headed for Joann's to buy polyester quilt batting to make dog blankets. My collection of flannel includes lots of colorways, prints and plaids that are never going to become logs for my etsy shop, but would make great blankets for dogs! Polyester quilt batting secured and a bolt of dog bone polar fleece that could be blankets too (without any sewing!)and some yarn and I was good to go. (Yarn on the brain, just can't pass up a good deal on Paton's classic merino for felting projects, but that's another story.)

Sewed up several blankets over the last few days and made my delivery to Kent Animal Shelter this afternoon. It made me think about Louie and how lucky we were to have him in our lives if only for a short while. There will be more blankets. I've hardly made a dent in my second string flannels and there are always more Joann's coupons arriving in the mail weekly.

If you're a local animal lover and have a chance to click on the Kent Animal Shelter link, there maybe something you could contribute too.

lucky guy(s)

2010-05-24T12:27:00.000-04:00

Long time between posts here.

Just thought I'd mention my recent cross country flight. I dread the day long journey to California, and last week was no different. To stave off the boredom and flight anxiety I usually have knitting projects on board. I had two sock projects with me last Tuesday, so as soon as I settled into my aisle seat on the first leg of the flight to Chicago I pulled out the preferred sock project. The middle seat was empty and the window seat was occupied by a late 30-ish man. As soon as I started the casting on process he became interested.

So what are you making?

I'm starting a sock for my husband.

How does that work? How does it become a sock?

It eventually becomes a tube and then gets a heel and then a toe.

Bet you'll have it finished before we get to Chicago!

Probably not, don't think I knit that fast.

Well, your husband is a lucky guy.

I knit for the duration of the flight, but surprise, surprise I didn't finish the sock. I did make my way through the cuff.

During the 2 1/2 hour layover at Midway terminal, where they don't offer FREE Wifi, I made progress on the leg of the sock and the stitch pattern started to develop down the leg.

The flight to Sacramento was very full and the empty seat between a woman at the window seat and my aisle seat was soon occupied by a big, tall man. What was he thinking squishing into the little center seat (and possibly impairing my right arm action)? I pulled out my sock project anyway. He looked up from his magazine and asked me:

Are you making a sweater?

No it's a sock.

My mother used to do that in England when I was young.

Hmmm...that's interesting. Yeh, England is still full of knitters!

So what will you do with a sock?

Make another one and then my husband wears them.

Lucky guy!

As I knit along on the sock leg, I became more and more attached to the results of this appealing hand-dyed yarn. I'm thinking how lucky my husband was to be getting these socks that I'm loving so much I might have to hijack them!

I arrived in Sacramento many hours later, settled in at my parents house and took out my alternate sock project, a sock I'd started knitting last month with plans to gift the pair to my brother so he'd be prepared for next winter. I showed him the sock in progress and told him I was knitting it for him.

I couldn't wear that sock!

Why? Is it too fancy?

Well yes it's too fancy! Maybe when I'm buried...I could wear them.

Brothers! He was in a surly, deprived mood. I can't tell you how much of a pain in the %@# these socks were to get started (right? Karen), during my early spring brain freeze. Maybe I'll finish his casket socks and set them aside until that fateful day or maybe I'll just give them to some guy on a plane!

Just a 12 hour span of sock knitting in public.

honkers pond recedes

2010-04-07T10:37:00.015-04:00

I could write about the travails of owning a house near a non-tidal river. I could write about the knowledge I've acquired about pumping water out of a basement. But there are far worse scenarios in other households in our area due to the torrential rains we experienced last week in Long Island. Mine are tales of inconvenience not tragedy.

The river acquired some of our backyard a week ago, about 30 feet in beyond the bulkhead at the greatest point. Now it's about 10 feet away from being our backyard again. Last week I joked about our bulkhead looking like one of those endless pools in a resort, that was before the river rose another 8 inches or so totally obscuring any edge.

This morning the sun is out, the river is receding back over the bulkhead and the swans, geese, ducks and various other birds will have to find another shallow pond to frolic in. All have been entertaining but some are not as clean as others. Canadian geese, you know I'm talking about you!
When I tiptoed out there just now to shoot this preening swan I was able to snap a few pictures before he/she headed towards me thinking I had snacks to dispense. I don't feed intimidating waterfowl.

While learning too much about pumping water out of our basement and worrying about the drawbacks of houseboat life I did manage some knitting projects during the evenings. Look! New socks! Toe-up construction from a very precisely dyed skein of sock yarn from AlishaGoesAround. Here they are posing with their shoes.

It's Spring and time to be finished with those winter knitting projects! I'm working my way through them so I can start felting experiments. Water, soap, agitation---amazing what it can do to simply knit forms and wool fiber. Hope to have some to show soon.

spring sprung

2010-03-21T15:29:00.007-04:00

Yes! That first sign of Spring when the crocuses start popping up in everyone else's yard. Crocus. Hmmm...in my yard it's one 3 inch high grape hyacinth at the base of our large maple! You'd have to get down on your hands and knees to see the subtle display. I love it nonetheless.

It was great to get outside in clothing less cumbersome than a down jacket. Ok. So it hasn't been that cold, but you get the picture. The warm temperatures will be fleeting though as another cold front heads our way. Not expecting snow. (So don't expect snow pictures!) Famous last words.

lost my snow-mo-jo

2010-02-26T12:08:00.002-05:00

I thought it only appropriate on the eve of the closing ceremony weekend that this picture be one that expresses the Olympic spirit. This pair of tennis shoes has been hanging from the lines since the morning my new dishwasher was delivered and installed, last Fall. (How do they do it and how do we get them down?) I am sort of sorry that the Olympics will be over soon. Though I might have missed the tennis-shoe fling there were plenty of events of daredoing and endurance that I did manage to catch. And I love the setting in Vancouver!

I took the camera out this morning to once again document the snowfall. Everything looks the same as the last storm and the flung shoes were the most interesting items out there. I've lost my snow-mo-jo. But I did manage to shovel the driveway and start making a snowman. The snow was not the snowman making grade, however, and mine looked more like a sinking snow cat instead. The fearless feral cats have been traversing our Louieless (our big dog that passed away a few months ago) yard unimpeded by my featherweight dachshund. These cats have a good 5 - 10 pounds at least on Archie! I'm sure they won't deterred by my snowcat, either.

While not shoveling over this long Long Island winter I've done lots of knitting and lots of sewing. Not much of it has been displayed here. I do most of my knitting show-and-tell on Ravelry---the knitters facebook. The bulk of my knitting ultimately becomes my Fall display for the buttons and pins I make.

Really we all want to see Spring inspiration, right now! A little crocus peeping up under the snow cover, perhaps? Not in my yard, not this week! So I have to make my own.

I've been toying with some wearable chenille pieces for the upcoming local fiber arts show Fluffystuff at the end of March. They look like the load of flannel pajamas got shredded and inextricably tangled. (That's a word, right?) I'm not sure what I will be taking to the show, buttons and pins probably, but with a name like Fluffystuff I'm really tempted to take the pajama jamboree along. Before I wash them they look like this....

After the washer and dryer treatment....

We'll see. I'm happy exploring the possibilities and using up lots of Spring palette flannel until it's really Spring!

mo snow pictures

2010-02-12T08:35:00.002-05:00

Just so you don't think that The Blizzard wasn't documented at our house on Thursday----it was!

It's just that I'm more interested in Spring and putting on my boots to go outside yesterday to take pictures was the last thing I wanted to do. Dennis was way more inspired!

pink-y, red-y and such

2010-02-12T08:30:00.003-05:00

Oops! Forgot to post the finale of the little rustic stool with the pink bark cover. It languished for a while until I resolved how to finish it. It got a cute little drawstring and that did it, just in time for a Valentine's color theme post!

This time of year the sun is so low on the horizon, it's almost impossible to get good available light indoors here for photography. I'm just not much for setting up lights. So last week I dragged my recently finished, Valentine inspired passionately colored chenille items along on a drive out to Greenport to see my friend Sarah. She graciously allowed me to use her abundant Southern exposure for photos. Cairo, her little fluffy Jack Russell terrier, followed the red log all over the house and posed wherever I set the camera up! He's an excellent model for scale, don't you think? I'm a sucker for dogs that pose---mine always scatter when the camera starts clicking.

Red log and pink stool are in my etsy shop now! Happy Valentine's Day!

just maybe I watched too many Westerns over the holidays

2010-01-24T19:27:00.002-05:00

My husband and I have now settled on one channel for our tv viewing out of the hundreds available on our cable system, Turner Classic Movie channel. We are trying to wean ourselves off cable and our news junkie habit and we've managed to eliminate watching almost everything but TCM. When the tv is on, it's on 68.

Which might explain why I was compelled to sew up a group of chenille items for my next Sewfaux update, inspired it seems by the many Westerns I've watched. When I'm not interested in the movies' story I look at the movies' set, which would have been the case if a Western is on (this excludes Deadwood, not on TCM anyway). After completing some long unfinished pieces they just happen to look like they belong in the bunkhouse.

Cowhide, barrel cactus, bark....Podner! Just have to imagine some cowhands, your dude ranch guys and gals sitting around the campfire with their bedrolls, or hanging out in the bunkhouse doin' a few rope tricks. Roy and Dale's house. Lonesome Dove. Bonanza.

I've just been totally immersed in sewing for the last few weeks after I tried to find something in the closet where all things chenille go. Layers and piles of unexplained chenille. Someone had to do something about it!

Don't worry I haven't gone totally Western, though it may crop up from time to time. Alongside the dude ranch decor I've also managed to prduce a few items for the following update, in reds and passionate colors expressly for Valentiners. I know you're all relieved.

Shop will be updated by the end of today.

snow-covered is how I like it

2010-01-02T15:25:00.016-05:00

Up and down our street it looked like this at 9am this morning-

Not again, you're saying. I know, I just can't help it (being that I'm the official snow photographer, remember?). I don't know what it is but as soon as snow covers the ground at my house I'm compelled to get out there with the camera.

This morning was no exception. First snow of 2010! Our view across the frozen Peconic River-

Second only to all of Fall, snow-covered is how I like it here. I like the texture it creates on the Black Prince holly, how the forsythia never looked better, how the color peeps out on the chamaecyparis (which I had to look up to spell), how subtle the colors on the Korean Ash look and how it fills the craggy bark on the large pines.

Except for driving it's pretty great stuff. This weekend it's the perfect excuse to cocoon. Some here have settled in with their kindle, others are contemplating knitting up a storm---the other sock, the rest of the vest? There is no end of projects to pick up here...

Happy New Year!

are we all merry-ed out?

2009-12-27T20:45:00.002-05:00

Hope you all had a merry time! Our Christmas tree is deflating as I write. Yes, there are inflatable Christmas trees! We just couldn't gather the enthusiasm to unpack our great collection of ornaments and decorate the real thing. But I don't think we fell down on the present-making department.

My plan is always to do as much merry making as possible---for holiday gifts. What we can't bake or make, we shop for online away from the retail mob scene.

Though Christmas is over officially I'm still gift-making.
My favorite gift to make this year was/is a slipper pattern to knit and then felt from FrenchPressKnits. It's a quick knit, lots of sewing and more fun in the washing machine. And look how cute they look with buttonshow buttons! Soon yours (those of you who traced your feet know who you are) will arrive by post or personal delivery! I know, the surprise is blown for the most part---all but the color and the buttons...

I started a pair of socks the day before Christmas, never thinking I would finishthem in time to be wrapped and under the inflatable tree. One sock might be finished for New Years Day, but don't hold your breath, dear. Their destiny may be as the first-day-of-the-Spring-semester Socks. (For those of you not on the semester system, that would be sometime towards the end of January 2010!)

That wraps up my gift making ambitions for Christmas 2009! Is it better late than never? I think so.

post big snow

2009-12-20T12:40:00.004-05:00

OK! As the official photographer of snow in our household I have these shots of the blizzard dump. I perhaps spent too much time in photoshop trying to figure out how to fill the empty spot, but the official photoshop user is busy shoveling my car out of the driveway.

Don't know what the news is saying but it looks like we got 20 inches or so easily. I like the big drifts coming off front gable---

big snow

2009-12-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

I took before pictures of the pre-blizzard conditions here on Long Island at the 2:45 dog walk this afternoon. Things weren't looking bad at all, though the neighbors inflatable snowman was wavering in the wind.

But the 9:50pm dog walk was much different. Shivering dog under one arm and shovel under the other to create a pee path through the 10 inches of snow! That was fun.

We'll see what the conditions are tomorrow morning for the post blizzard pictures!

Is that better Sarah?

it needs pink bark, right?

2009-12-04T19:45:00.002-05:00

All through with the oven drama, for the time being, but keep in mind that Christmas is just a few short weeks away and anything is likely with my tempermental appliances!

So this little 3-legged stool is now the object of my attention. Until a couple of days ago I was going to toss it. I changed my mind about it's potential and here it is being admired by my camera. I love how you can tell it was made by someone's hand, however crudely, to serve a purpose. A milking stool? To put a plant on or one foot. I'll never know what place it held in someone's house or barn or...

It has character. It's paint job has acquired that desirable crackly patina. And probably the maker of this stool would never have imagined it needed a pink bark slip cover, not in a million years. That's where I come in. I know it needs a pink bark slipcover.

The fabric that inspired pink bark, the Joel Dewberry wood grain fabric at the lower left hand corner of the first shot, is taking it's turn in the dryer after being pre-shrunk. It'll make a nice inner lining, though I'm not just sure how I will construct the slipcover yet, it might be visible. Or it might just have to be a secret thing that few will be aware of, like the intimate details of the little 3 legged stool once it too is obscured by shirred pink cotton.

It's now underway and it's definitely going to be a colorful addition to the natural palette of the other bark textile pieces in my etsy store, Sewfaux.

Ha, Ha stupid oven! Or how I managed to make Thanksgiving dinner this year

2009-11-26T11:00:00.006-05:00

I hope you have all had a delightful Thanksgiving day!

Eventually we did too...though the potential for not having a pleasant and tasty meal was hanging in the balance for the last 36 hours.

I hesitate to chronicle Thankgiving 2009 at our house, 'cause I've read many a blog with appliance rants, but I might as well go ahead.

We moved into this house 16 years ago and worked hard to finish remodeling the kitchen so we could invite friends from upstate NY to join us for our first Thanksgiving back on the East Coast. The new GE range arrived in November. I planned a sort of southwest menu, did the grocery shopping, cleaned and organized our small house. Masses of turkey enchiladas were readied, as our upstate guests were making their way across the bridges from the Bronx.

Our guests arrived with their dishes, fortunately, because the enchiladas never cooked in the erratic GE oven. (Did I mention it was a GE?) We celebrated with the dishes that didn't need the oven. A memorable, though embarrassing holiday. This was the start of the era of unreliable oven karma.

Fast forward to 2003. I'm working part-time at Williams Sonoma surrounded by upscale cookware which causes me to dream of a professional stove with a grand price tag. Days before Thanksgiving, the GE range, the replacement for the earlier unwilling GE model, dies. There's not enough time to purchase a range (in or out of our price range) and get it before Thanksgiving. Chalk up another turkey day meal thwarted by GE.

I decide or am dazzled by a Kitchenaid Superba model, which once installed looked more like the front end of a Ford Explorer---huge, black enamel and stainless steel. The imposing Ford Explorer impersonator Kitchenaid range has not functioned in a dazzling manner and has required regular visits from the appliance repair guy since it's arrival. Last December unreliable oven karma, predictably sets in a few days before Christmas with no possibility of repair until after the holiday. Christmas baking was foiled as well as a traditional oven roasted Christmas dinner.

This year I took a peremptory approach to the problem and had the appliance repair guy come to replace the broiler ignition just before Halloween. But this was not enough to stop the holiday tradition of not having a working oven. Oh no!

Unaware of impending doom, I went ahead and did my planning and my shopping over the last week, confident that my Halloween trick was the solution. All systems were GO, right? Small turkey dinner for two, not a problem, until Tuesday evening.

It goes like this, you turn the oven on, it reaches temperature, you put the fish in, you turn on the front burner of the stove and an indicator thingie buzzes? The clock goes off and an error code is displayed on the control panel. No amount of touching or pounding the display panel changes the display. (Did I mention this is a Kitchenaid?) The oven has shut down and doesn't intend to come back on. I whispered to the oven in an unthanksgivingly manner "I hate you".

Googling the error code reveals it's either the control panel or the bake assembly ignition which I replaced last Christmas. The Kitchenaid helpline operator tells me the warranty is up on the control panel. Thank you very much. Wednesday morning I call the repair guy and he confirms its an expensive control panel issue. I've had it with this range, it is dead to me. But my plans for Thanksgiving aren't.

Plan B. What a surprise! There are no roaster ovens available on the shelves of local retailers on Thanksgiving eve. OK, OK let's not panic. This stinkin' appliance (did I mention it's a Kitchenaid Superba?) is not going to ruin the $30, 12 pound, butterflied Bell & Evans turkey in my refrigerator.

Ah ha! Plan C. It can all be braised in some assembly of my Le Creuset cookware on top of the stove! I made my adjustments to the ingredients and proceeded to make a Thanksgiving dinner. Though we had to eliminate a few (most) of the usual side dishes and baked items, the braised turkey breast was delicious! Ha, ha stupid oven!

We will be shopping for a replacement in the next few days. Hopefully there's a model of some kind out there that can overcome unreliable oven karma. I have no idea what oven I mistreated to deserve this, but what are the chances.....

Come support a birdy cause!

2009-11-08T07:15:00.011-05:00

Next Saturday, if you live on the East End of LI, there will be a Holiday Bazaar in Greenport at the Audobon Society's Red House Nature Center to raise funds to improve the facilities. I'm going to be there with a little table of my hand-embroidered silk sachets, and lavender kits to make your own beauteous holiday gifts. Last time ever for my lavender!

Support a worthy cause---

2nd Annual Holiday Bazaar
Location: Red House Nature Center at Inlet Pond County Park, Rt 48, Greenport, NY
Saturday, November 14, 2009, 10:00am

yarning oversaturation

2009-10-26T00:20:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I drove 3 hours to Hartford CT to see what the knitting show, Stitches, was all about. Like the last yarn-filled weekend in Rhinebeck wasn't enough. Just had to find out for myself.

I set out from my house early Saturday morning where the leaves on my trees looked like this.
Every year I'm amazed at how they fill my windows with yellow leaf glow and I take pictures of it.

Connecticut's leaves are still glowing too. I'm happy to be driving through the Fall landscape passing towns with names like Beacon Falls and
Plainville...as I try to describe by name the colors that whisk by.

Around 11 I arrive in the parking garage at the Hartford Convention Center. I'm armed with copies of sweater patterns that I think I might need to knit.

It's a convention center like many, you could be anywhere, and the booths are set up like any tradeshow. After the first aisle although I like what I see in the String Theory booth by the end of that aisle I've forgotten all about their lovely yarns, because there's lots of yarn and lots of people. In the third aisle I think maybe I better get a shot of something. So I hold my camera up over my head and click the button to shoot the busy aisle.

By the time I get to the end of Aisle 300 there's an announcement over the PA system about ....some unauthorized photography. What? I take it personally, close my camera and shove it back into my purse. Though I'm a visual person I've apparently missed the big signage at the entry warning the attendees that there's to be no unauthorized photography, because apparently there's something classified going on here.

I've now lost track of what I'm doing here and temporarily lost the will to buy yarn too. I'm also wondering if I can go home before seeing every booth, but I'm also not ready to sit in the car for another 3 hours. It's beginning to look to me like every yarn store within 70 miles has decided to sign up for a booth and brought all their stock with them.

I spot the Tutto Isager booth ---these people know how to display yarn and knitted samples and the urge to buy something wooley comes back to me. I do that, but apparently I wasn't at the right end of the line (what line?) to make my purchase. At least they didn't announce that on the PA system.

One kind lady manning a large booth from another state, a patient state, took the time to show me all the needle felting options. Handles that secure multiple dangerous needles for poking wool---maybe this is what I'm not supposed to take pictures of. Anyway, I buy the one she says she likes the best, the cheapest one.

The Habu booth is filled with baskets of little skeins of intriguing fibers. I buy pineapple twine, it looks like, in two colors and plan to bring it home to add to my collection of unused skeins of wonderous Habu fibers. Oh yes and there was that skein of Possum Lace I bought from the discontinued yarn booth because... I don't know why. Was that a good thing to do for the possum community or not?

In one vendor's booth I was encouraged to knit with triangular knitting needles, but preferred his flat needles. Though he is good at making weird shaped knitting needles in his workshop, his wife has suggested he learn to knit. Good idea.

I'm real tired and I don't remember what aisle I'm shopping in or not shopping in. It's a blur of yarn store cubbies. I've yet to pull out my sweater pattern reference. After all, my current sweater knitting isn't going all that well. I've started 2 different sweaters and a scarf all from the blue yarn I purchased to make one sweater. Sweaters involve things like fitting and knitting to gauge, things I'm not interested in. It takes a long time to do make all those parts and then you also have to be willing to wear the sweater once you've knit it. But that's not Stitches East fault, they probably have a class to deal with this problem, I just didn't READ their information.

I see every last booth or think I do in spite of my hunger and thirst, make one last purchase of Moving Mud glass buttons (for what? a sweater?) and head for my car. Four harrowing hours later I'm home having driven through the pouring rain to safely conclude my weekend knitting or "yarning" adventure. (In my household, "yarning" refers to any activity related to knitting or dyeing yarn or looking at yarn online or receiving it in the mail, now also including taking off for the day or part of the day to do any of the above).

Perhaps no more Stitches for me. It just made me think a yarn crawl of the yarn stores and any independent yarn artists studios within 70 miles of the Convention Center would be a more interesting thing to do. That way you get to stop in towns like Plainville or Beacon Falls, maybe, and be inspired by their leaves, have lunch at a local restaurant, meet a yarn store owner and buy yarn from their brick and mortar establishment and/or meet a creative yarn-dyer in her studio and appreciate the work that goes into that skein of hand-dyed yarn.

Or maybe I've just hit my yarning capacity for the month and I need to turn my attention to scrubbing my stove.

post Rhinebeck post

2009-10-20T11:22:00.002-04:00

The much anticipated NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, aka Rhinebeck, has been and gone. I'm home, sorting and reorganizing my buttons, the booth components and the rest of it.

On Friday I arrived in Rhinebeck around noon, picked up a sandwich from Bread Alone and unloaded my stuff on the fairgrounds and set up my new display, which is sort of fiddly to do, but shows off my wool buttons and button-centric knit samples better than previous displays or at least I think so.

At the end of the day I had a chance to shop in The Folds booth in it's new location. I couldn't decide which Socks that Rocks yarn I wanted with only a handful of people in the booth! I need that Filene's basement frenzy to do a better job of shopping! Workshop attendees and other vendors have that Friday advantage.

Maybe the alarming weather predictions were a factor this year and maybe the upcoming Stitches East impacted the attendance, but the wonderful, avid, rabid fiber people braved the sunny, brisk Fall weather to come to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds were greatly appreciated. Saturday morning before the gate opened it looked like this, (see the happy-to-be-there attendee waving!):

I took a few minutes before it opened to attempt to shop at my short list of booths. My wonderings are restricted since I'm supposed to be there selling and not shoppin'! Beyond my booth in Building A I sought out Creatively Dyed Dianne's colorful yarns and went away with a skein of the multi-multi colored fingering.

Across the aisle was the popular Briar Rose booth which had a line in it already, so I had to abandon any notion of shopping there or even seeing the selections, unfortunately. (Look at the detail on that lady's sweater!)

Had to scurry back to find my boothmate Sarah selling buttons for me already. The rest of Saturday was made up of a flurry of sales of my leaf pins, shawl pins and assorted buttons. Jane (as in, Not Plain Jane) stopped in to compliment me on my new direction---she's been a supportive customer there each year through all my transformations. I asked about her current projects and she's very pleased to have one of her shawls in Clara Parkes' new book. Yay! Jane!

I also was fortunate to be next to the Wool Room booth where author and artist, Carol Cypher, was helping out. Two years ago I had bought her then current book, Hand Felted Jewelry and Beads, she signed the book and talked with me briefly about the book process, being an author and teacher. I intended to start felting right away! Didn't happen. But now I'm determined with her encouragement to get my dyepots going, dye my supply of roving and get started with wet felting. Hope to take a class from her next month at the Kinokuniya book shop in NYC.

The aisles bustled in Building A with great knitwear and other fiber celebrities. I wore my Swiss Cheese Scarf knit in Dicentra Designs glowing golden orange and it befriended several other Swiss Cheese Scarves throughout the day.

Half way through Saturday a woman in an eclectic array of garments dropped into the booth to admire my Einstein Vest (also in a glowing Manos yarn, glowing was the key word for my accessories) and I started to refer her to the Sally Melville books and the pattern for it. It's a very, very simple garter knit but makes a great billboard for a special set of embroidered buttons. She didn't want to knit it she wanted to buy the vest off my back! I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't. We made a deal, I clipped off the special buttons and she left me there unsweatered. That was just too funny! I asked what she wanted me to knit for her next year!

On Sunday the weather was not so great and surely many chose to avoid the damp and drippy conditions. I got to do more shopping and headed for a booth that Sarah guided me to, Julia M Hilbrandt, who makes sleek, simple bags, purses, pillows out of industrial felt with great machine stitched detailing. I was so attracted to her aesthetic I tested all the strap lengths and found the bag I couldn't live without. She also had on display an apple green, heavy felt tree skirt with curvy stitched pleats that should certainly be on someone's Christmas list. Hope to see her again next year.

A big thank you to those that stopped by my booth and bought buttons, admired buttons, touched buttons, rummaged through my sale buttons and my vintage buttons and appreciated my work.

And I'm thankful that I have friends in the area that are willing to put up with me for the weekend, feed me warm dinners, give me a comfy bed to sleep in and accommodate my whims. Thanks Sue and Jamie!

The sun's out here, the Fall color is just arriving in our neck of the woods and it's perfect light for photographing buttons to upload to the new etsy shop:

2 weeks to go

2009-10-03T16:06:00.000-04:00

I don't blog regularly, or haven't you noticed? Last time I sat down at the keyboard I was busy knitting cowls and hats with Noro yarns. Cowls became hats and hats became cowls, it got confusing even for me. There were several transformations and they ended up looking fine. Haven't touched them for a month so they must be done!

The buttoned cowl now looks like this:

And the original cowl morphed into this conehead hat:

These two items will be on display along with other button-topped samples in my booth, A28, at the Sheep and Wool Festival, in Rhinebeck, NY. Stop by my booth in Building A. I share the space with sisters McNamara from The Paisley Studio and Thimblefolk. I know Sarah and Barb are working hard to get ready for this big event!

There is still much work to be done as far as button production, display components---a big list. I can't wait!

enthusiasm/disaster/resurrection

2009-08-13T09:28:00.003-04:00

I love Noro yarns! Kureyon is one of my favorites. I love it's unpredictable color combinations, how it looks and feels only slightly processed, more like a handspun than a commercial yarn.

When I first joined the online knitting forum, Ravelry, I discovered the Noro lovers group and a treasury of Noro patterns. I chose a hat pattern, knit it quickly on a wintery weekend.

After I tried it on it was clear this Noro hat belonged to someone youthful---like someone that snowboards.

August 13,2009. Back at work on my embroidered buttons. Inspired by the Noro yarns again, knitting samples that require buttons for display purposes and for using up yarn purposes. I've returned to that snowboarder's hat, thinking, how would it look as a cowl, a neck-warmer that needs buttons? I pull out my stash of Noro yarns, I swatch, I calculate and I cast on. I knit away, shaping with short rows, fiddling with button holes until I've bound off and have a finished cowl/neck-warmer. I select a few buttons at random, pin them on and head to the bathroom mirror.

Hmmm. I find that I have knit a cowl for your average sumo wrestler. Though I swatch, I forget to measure during the knitting part (it's over so quickly)! The cowl thingie is not entirely a bad experience, because as I was pulling it over my unruly non-hat hair, I discover it looks better as the beginnings of hat. The wheels turn.

It's now becoming a hat. I'll revise the calculations for the sumo cowl and will knit another one in a regular person size. Now I'm focused on the transformation of sumo cowl into a hat. I've picked up stitches and I'm heading towards the hat's crown.

This is often how the best things come about for me---enthusiasm/disaster/resurrection. It does remain to be seen though.

sat morning o'er the Peconic

2009-08-10T09:03:00.009-04:00

Ah! The best time of day on our back deck, overlooking the quiet scene on the Peconic River, sun breaking through the oak branches, in my chartreuse flamingo print pj's, coffee (and camera) in hand...

Our goal this summer has been to make sure every paintable exterior surface is layered with a fresh coat of driftwood grey! I know, quite an inspiring color. I feel like we've been working on the Intrepid since June. So I'm savoring the last horizontal, ungrey surface before the painting maniac returns and the paint brushes come out.

Just enjoy your coffee on my deck---we have plenty of room for more tables and umbrellas on this soon-to-be all grey deck!

slow sock making

2009-08-02T18:15:00.001-04:00

I just looked back to see when I first posted about knitting these socks for my husband. May 28. Now finally they are off the needles and it's August! Quite possibly the slowest pair of socks ever knit.

I learned a lot about knitting socks from the toe up and about fitting the foot.

He loves his socks and how they look with his favorite shoes. I may be persuaded to knit more, if the right shoes come along!

breezy, 73 degrees and sunny!

2009-07-08T15:34:00.014-04:00

We had sun today! That meant tackling some exterior house projects this morning. When that was over I started harvesting lavender stems from what remains of my lavender cutting garden. Haven't replaced the plants that didn't survive over the last, few wet winters, 8 plants remain and only 2 or 3 are really producing, due to my neglect, I guess. Since I've developed a sensitivity to working with the dried lavender, I only work with it outdoors. This year's harvest won't yield a lot to make wands with but it will be enough to supplement the already dried bundles from last year.

I was just shooting a few pics to remind me of this summer's lavender work and waiting for some busy bees to come into the frame. It was a little breezy and not late enough in the afternoon, to catch them clinging to the stems in drunken stupors.

And finally a little worker bee----

Hope to re-open my lavendertrifles shop in the next week with new lavender wand-making kits and finished lavender sachet wands.

who needs sunblock?

2009-07-01T10:30:00.000-04:00

Monday was one of those few sunny day we've experienced this summer (and spring) and I spent the day happily shuttling back and forth to my dyeing area in the garage minding my crockpot full of yarn, hand-painting hanks of yarn, rinsing and hanging them out to dry in my breezeway. The light was so ...light!

Yesterday we stoked up the BBQ so we wouldn't forget what a grilled burger tastes like, we did errands with car roof open, we wore sunglasses, we took the dogs to get ice cream...

The sun didn't last long. This morning it's back to being overcast and threatening rain, not good for dyeing, barbequeing, photography or painting the house.

I was trying to shoot a picture of the results of Monday's dyeing to email a friend this morning---the light from my back window did little to enhance the fiery results.

I pivoted to see if the schizophrenic's worktable had better light for photography---

Not really! So from the worktable cam this morning---socks in progress (SIP), over-dyed Tweed (removed that pesky tweed detail!), punchneedle embroidery in progress (PEIP)and threads, threads sorted to be dyed, knitted edging in progress (KEIP), bulky knit hat waiting for button, finished embroidery waiting to become buttons and pins, the always open Barbara G Walker pattern book, hanks waiting to be wound...and all of this with the Ott light switched on because it's too dark at 9 am not to have lights on!

No need for sunblock again today!

fathers day antimacassar

2009-06-21T09:59:00.000-04:00

My father requested that I make him a chenille rug last winter after seeing the multi-colored, stashbuster rug in my etsy shop. He threatened to buy it for the back of his Design within Reach leather couch, a robin's egg blue leather minimalist piece of furniture that doesn't need further enhancement but...I promised to make one especially for him and his couch. Got started on it in late winter, stalled in early spring, realized that Father's day was coming up without verifying it on the calendar, hurriedly finished it two weeks ago and mailed it off prematurely.

I called it an antimacassar! You know those lace doilies that your parents or grandparents might have had on the headrest and arms of an upholstered chair. This is just a big shirred cotton antimacassar!

I'm not taking any chances that my dad might be peaking in at my blog, so I'm posting this on Fathers's day so I won't spoil the surprise! I'm sorry that I can't be there in person to deliver the rug and make french toast. Happy Fathers Day!

button hunt

2009-06-07T17:06:00.003-04:00

I used to collect buttons until I found out there were rules involved. Several years ago after buying a big batch of mother of pearl buttons at an antique show I wanted to know more about the buttons and joined a button collectors club. I lasted about a year and a half--nice group of women but the rules involved in sharing your interest were beyond my capabilities and so was the price range these women were dealing with at this stage in their collecting careers.

Saturday I went to Southbury CT to shop the vendor showroom at the Northeast Regional Button Association's Annual show. I had been to this show when I was a practicing collector, 8 years ago. Then it was overwhelming to walk into a meeting room filled with buttons, everyone talking about buttons, boxes full of 9" x 12" cards full of buttons and tables filled with boxes! I was totally absorbed in the hunt and unwittingly aggravated the tendonitis in my shoulder by looking at all those cards of buttons, every last one of them. The circumstances mystified my orthopedic surgeon who obviously wasn't a collector.

Yesterday when I finally found the Crowne Plaza at exit 16, not exit 11, not exit 14 or 15 I was greeted by one of my former button collecting mentors at the door. Once inside the familiar room it was much less stressful to be looking for buttons for resale. I said I wasn't a collector for 2 hours or so, then I saw a button that awakened my acquisitorial spirit: an ugly worn wooden button shaped like a squished stump. What else? A log button! (See the ugly one on the lower right of the picture!)

I happily hunted my way around the room in search of more log specimens, tucking manila envelopes full of buttons for resale into my bag for a few hours and then had to concede that I was buttoned-out, just couldn't look at another one. Packed it in and headed south on Connecticut's leafy route 25, I was still absorbed in button euphoria. Well, not exactly euphoria, maybe two steps below euphoria. I would have been euphoric if I found these buttons along the roadside and paid nothing for them, but...

Log specimens examined---

glass in the desert

2009-06-01T21:44:00.001-04:00

I saw an amazing installation in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix last week. My friends in Phoenix had shared their night photos of this wonderful display of Dale Chihuly's work earlier this year and I hoped it would still be up when I was in Arizona. It was and I'm so glad I got to see it. I took 200+ photos before sunset, but without a tripod I was less successful when the sun went down.

I loved this show! I loved the Desert Botanical Garden, the hard-scaping, the plantings---all of it! I have more photos but I found the links at the Desert Botanical Garden and Dale Chihuly's even more informative, take a look!

naturally...mostly

2009-05-28T16:03:00.000-04:00

Was going to keep my blog updated as I traveled from the West Coast through the Southwest (on Southwest) but it was less and less about making things than it was about family and not making things.

I did make progress on these socks while in Sacramento:

When I was in Albuquerque I did get a quick visit to Village Wools before going to the airport which delighted my Mom and my sister-in-law. It's a great store, lucky Albuquerque! Found some BrownSheep yarn that isn't carried on the East Coast or at least I hadn't run across it--NatureSpun in fingering weight and Jarbo Garn in a single fingering weight---in a natural colors which I intend to dye and maybe felt.

In Phoenix I misplaced my list of knitting stores but ran across Tempe Yarn and Fiber---they were a fun group. I mentioned Ravelry and they suggested I take a look at their Fred Made me do it group. There I added to my natural color collection to dye---with a few skeins of BrownSheep's Top of the Lamb single in sportweight. I'm smitten by singles in any weight.

What this all boils down to is this---when I returned home to Long Island Spring had sprung more fully and there were new cygnets in the Lake. I caught the mother swan paddling away from our bulkhead and only snagged a few unsteady shots.

Their taupe color reminded me of my natural yarn collection. Of course the natural yarn will eventually be dyed unlike the cygnets. Which reminds me of one more thing: I was shown a book on my trip called Why Paint Cats. I was amazed at the images inside. Amazed and creeped out! It's full of images of "painted" cats. People spent inordinate amount of time air-brushing and painting cats like this one, that I just swiped from website engaged in discussion about painting cats. :
I'm thinkin' how I would even go about painting my black dogs...they barely get baths, so I don't think this is gonna happen and oh, the ethics seem to be a question too!

on board...round one

2009-05-13T13:04:00.006-04:00

When I finally land in Sacramento I am always delighted to find the public sculpture in the Southwest terminal---by Brian Groggin (look at his website! what cool work!!). I love these columns of suitcases! They just crack me up. I wish I had made them.

This crossing was surely a sign of our economic times. The whole Southwest flight from Long Island to the West Coast Southwest flight felt like a local subway route. Though the first leg from Long Island to Chicago was roomy, quiet and deceptively short enough. Then a quick board at Midway to the interminable flight to take me to the West Coast. This time the plane was loaded, every seat taken, more in character with most Southwest flights I take. Prior to boarding there was some confusion about the destination among the passengers in line, we all had the same flight number and 4 different destinations. San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle and Spokane. Geez! I wasn't prepared for another stop. Guess I didn't read the itinerary correctly---I have to compliment Southwest on how good a job it does of obscuring those details. It was disappointing after 4+ hours on board the crowded plane that the destination was indeed San Diego. When it was my turn to deplane, after another take-off and landing, I felt sorry, momentarily, for those continuing on and grateful that Spokane wasn't my destination, this trip.

The memory of the flight fades quickly, luckily, because I have 4 more Southwest flights to take.

I usually look forward to these flights for the opportunity to knit for uninterrupted periods of time and because it distracts me from the tedious passenger job. As soon as we were airborne I had my needles out and clicking away on a pair of socks. I thought they would be the perfect, portable project for this trip. I had only completed the toe and a few rows of the foot before leaving home and was sure this would be a breeze, so I included more yarn for second pair of socks.

But I can't tell you how boring this knitting is!!! I will though. Ugh. I knit for hours on those #1 needles, like knitting with angel hair pasta with only two rows of pattern to remember and it felt like I made little progress. Knowing knitters and unwitting civilians asked what I was knitting or who was the lucky recipient of my knitting efforts? The answer: if I can bring myself to complete even one sock, it will be for my husband and his pumpkin colored shoe(s).

Dennis asked me if the socks would be finished when we met up in Phoenix. I assured him he wouldn't be needing wool socks in Phoenix this time of year, so it didn't matter if they're finished then.

Knitting, when it's not for yourself, is an act of love.

fiber field trip

2009-04-25T07:46:00.015-04:00

I got on the train and went into NYC yesterday for a fiber field trip with my knitting in tow. (I didn't think about taking my camera so when it struck me that I wanted to take pictures I did have my phone.) The SUN was so BRIGHT, because it's finally Spring, that I could barely see the image on the tiny led screen---lucky that they are even pictures of something. Manhattan has it's tulips going.

It was a much larger shot of the center islands on Park Avenue filled with tulips and the multi-story buildings in the background, but the image is too large to extract from the phone and I don't understand image editor...the rest are at least viewable.

...so train to Manhattan, subway downtown, oops!, subway uptown to 86 St, walked south, oops!, walked north. I get so distracted I spend a lot of time backtracking to most of my destinations. Ah! The Guggenheim appeared so I was going in the right direction.

And finally the Cooper Hewitt at 91st.

and the entrance billboard for the show....

I have been anticipating this exhibit and was happy to finally be on it's doorstep. There are impressive felted pieces in this show----the yurt-ish conservatory installation...the sunlight space was luscious.

So much work, so much wool--silk?---netting draping from the ceiling....I saw the video of the artist working on this piece on Martha Stewart's website. I could only think how much I wanted the artist's set-up---big tent outdoors, big tables, garden hoses spouting with hot water and assistants. Sigh.

Other than the conservatory, the exhibit is intimate, darkish rooms. There were samples of industrial-created felt, and hand-created wet felting, but not so many pieces of knitted-to-felt. I was distracted by a couple that were looking and babbling in a foreign language as the woman pulled out her camera to snap a few pictures, prompting the guard to her side. They apologized and then went into the conservatory, continuing to take pictures throughout the rooms. I took my phone out and took the conservatory pictures (whoohoo and usually I'm such a girl scout!), poor as they are---I was not to be outdone. I will have to peruse the catalogue to remind me what I saw, like the Urchin Poufs---knit with rope size "yarn", Slices of large logs of spiraling felt colors, Textile stones, ---it was all good stuff! I wish I had been the only one in the exhibit and was able to touch and examine everything! The catalog pages will have to do.

I spent a fair amount of time in the Cooper Hewitt Museum shop wishing I could make a gift registry of all the things I loved and needed.(Get out much?) It's the kind of environment I like to shop in and be shopped for in.

Back on the subway at 86th, to 33rd. South on foot to Habu on W 29th, my old neighborhood. (I do much better south of Times Square.) 29th, 8th fl. No problem.

Looked at the sample book, looked at the small sale baskets amassed on the floor with tiny hanks of interesting fibers...chose two tiny hanks, both silk. Done. Outta there. Though I did try to palm off the dollar coins from the metrocard machine and the young Japanese speaking woman was not to be fooled by my funny money. (I was forced to buy pastry in Penn Station to get rid of the coins.)

So much for my fiber field trip! The weather was lovely and the city was teeming with people on their way home. I knit on my wooly experiment all the way to Stony Brook. When I got home I realized that I needed to rip it all out. Sigh.

color bias

2009-04-22T12:33:00.004-04:00

I have had strong opinions about color for as long as I can remember and for a long time, maybe even decades, I didn't like the color yellow. I was mostly affected by yellow flowering plants. I love greens, so when yellows go sulpher-y or go towards green, like the winter hazel or the ornamental grass hakenachloa, that's desirable.

Real yellow, nada. So when I started to add plants to our yard years ago I couldn't pick daffodils that were yellow. I went to great lengths to get all white ones. Or sunflowers. I got those small Italian white ones with the brown centers. So, you can imagine how the forsythia hedge at our curb has been an anathema for years. I didn't mind when the big truck that brought the concrete septic tank to the house several years ago damaged 3 or 4 while doing it's task! Really hated the ubiquitous yellow forsythia, for years! Be gone.

Maybe because this winter seemed longer, colder and grayer--- I was shocked one morning on the short drive home from treadmill punishment, that our block was suddenly ablaze with bloomin' yellow forsythia! Almost every yard has at least one forsythia bush. For the first time I didn't mind. I was delighted. Oh my gosh!

Poof! My yellow flora bias dissolved! No 12 step program or bias-removing chewing gum was required! I can't believe I'm admitting that I had this color bias aimed at innocent yellow flowering plants...but there you have it. I don't know why it unhappened but now I guess I can start to think about my aversion to pink stuff!

can't seem to put my knitting down

2009-04-19T21:45:00.001-04:00

I have friends who are prolific knitters, who crank out shawls, socks and sweaters (that actually fit someone) every week or so it seems. For me, it's the knitting process.

Last week I felted hats that I knit from different base yarns, a snake-y scarf in Noro's Kureyon (from Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr) and swatches.

The hats didn't look good on me, and even though the striped, pointy one with the ear flaps did look good on my husband, he would never wear it in public---so it was easy to justify felting them.

I'm incorporating the hat shaping, the toe up socks I've been working on recently and the holes from the Swiss Cheese scarf that I blocked last week, in my next knitting for felting experiments. I've made pattern notes and I'm preparing several hanks of 100% wool worsted for dyeing, because the readily available Paton's Classic Merino was not inspiring colorwise, though the sale price was. Knitting for felting takes lots o yarn and it's gotta be the color I want to work with!

Got the dyeing counter in my garage prepped now that it's warming up. I just have to make it happen.

blocking fun

2009-04-02T15:42:00.002-04:00

Just finished blocking two scarves from last month's knitting binge. I was hoping the weather would warm up more so that the drying process would be quick. Couldn't wait any longer. By the time they dry it'll be time to do the wardrobe swap anyway---from the Fall/Winter stuff to the Spring/Summer. Even so, I'll be happy to unpin them and pack them away for next Fall's debut.

Though I'm a longtime knitter, I had never done blocking like this until I was introduced to lace knitting by my knitting buddies. I love it's transformative effect!

I've not been totally side-tracked by knitting, but the sewing I have been doing is not gelling or may never gel, but it's not ready for photography. See>

here, here...

2009-03-25T18:15:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday I intended to snap a picture of my Yarn Harlot desk calender, but I forgot, like I've forgotten to actually blog on too many days too. I uncovered my collection of favorite calender days that are intended to be pinned on my non-existent bulletin board and snapped it finally. I'm catching up with last week, now that tax preparation is over. I'll spare you the 'How creativity is undervalued in almost every aspect of life....' rant that was evoked when I turned to Wed March 18 on the calender.

A good thing that happened last week was the reappearance of my pearl earring! Lost one evening last Fall while I was walking the dog, we were sure it was a goner. Amazingly my husband found it lying there on the driveway having survived leaf raking, snow-shoveling and tire tracks all winter. Yey! Dennis!

I have been really productive since the last time I posted here. I just can't reveal some of the projects...gifts to be. I have a big pile of knitted things that need to be blocked when it gets warmer and things will dry faster. Some things are just not destined to be finished and I don't want it posted here where I'll be reminded that I didn't finish it. A few things are not identifiable yet...who knows what they'll be. Like this little marigold wanna be thingie.

or this ladybug stool cover...that is a joint project. I'm just not sure I like my part of the project and it remains on the hanger in an undetermined state.

I'm just glad it's Spring...which means the winter weather has to be on it's way out. Yes!

no signs of spring where the bison roam

2009-02-19T17:23:00.011-05:00

I slipped on the ice last month and did some damage to my elbow, impairing my ability to make things temporarily. I had an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor today. In the examining room I was knitting away intensely and mouthing the instructions, k2,yo,k6, k2tog, when the doctor came in. After he prodded and twisted my arm he said "I really shouldn't encourage the knitting, but it seems to have helped the healing process and you probably wouldn't stop if I told you to anyway". Right! I like this guy...he get's it. The xrays show that I broke the radial head in my elbow almost a month ago. I'm sort of surprised. It's the first time I broke anything and I didn't get a cast! That was disappointing---if you've broken something you should really have a cast so you look like you attempted some daredevil feat or...something stupid. Okay, so the cast idea was stupid.

On the way home from the xray appointment, I drove the farmland route in case there was a sign of spring to shoot. Little activity at the farm stands, no snow, no nothing. So I turned on the road that passes by the pastures where the bison herds are. (Yes! On Long Island.) I should have taken a photo of the sign for the owner's restaurant that advertises bison meat. Owww! I grew up in the bisonless California suburbs and I'd rather not picture the pasture-to-plate process that makes bison burgers possible. I was thinking more along the lines of bison yarn, which probably doesn't involve death, I would hope. Bison "fiber" is used to make some exotic yarns...like Mooi. Wonder if this bison herd owner is utilizing their fiber? You know, to make Mooi?

I'll have to ask the local spinners if they know anything about the local bison herds fiber potential.

fuzzy red skinny pink

2009-02-13T11:54:00.006-05:00

libraries are good

2009-02-09T12:33:00.003-05:00

When I became obsessed with knitting a few years ago my friend Sarah reminded me how useful and economical the library can be when you're tempted to order more knitting books from Amazon. My library records look like I'm determined to check out every title in the system with the words knit, yarn, or wool. That suggestion has saved me hundreds on books!

On Friday I picked up the next knitting book on my library list, The Best of Lopi. On a winter evening when your yard is still dotted with snow, a book full of bulky, warm Icelandic sweaters can be very tempting! The color choices began to swirl in my head and the online yarn ordering options lured me to the brink... almost. My better angels performed an intervention in the nick of time! After all I did have a few skeins of Lopi yarn that I had over-dyed for Christmas projects and well, maybe I should just experiment with what I had before committing to a whole sweater. Enter this glorious skein of yarn from the end of a dyepot session that suggests a name like Easter meets a Sunflower! Maybe glorious is not the right word.

With a hat pattern I found online and Easter meets a Sunflower primed, I cast on. A quick project with big needles, if you're paying attention to what you're knitting, which I didn't. I did finish it in a matter of hours and now I have no desire to order Lopi yarn for a whole sweater. As I pushed the bulky yarn on and off the big needles, I remembered December's Lopi knitting marathon and how it inflamed my shoulder and well, now I'm cured of the Iceland sweater project. Though I really liked the hat's inside where the two strands of yarn are carried along, there's some interesting, felting potential there, but the Lopi moment has passed (for me). Pphew!

But friends and family, the Icelandic moment may not have passed for you! I tried the Bjorkish hat on and was reminded of how dorky I look in hats. This must be gifted! When you least expect it, it may end up under your Christmas tree or next to your birthday cake or for your anniversary, arbor day...

in the works

2009-02-04T08:56:00.009-05:00

This is the pile of flannel on my table---inspiration to get started on a new group of sewfaux items! I use print backgrounds for the base layers that are invisible from across the room. It's that secret layer that you become aware of upon closer investigation, like when you hug a log pillow! You'll see how much better it is with the print background when you get a chance to hug one.

The two new log pillows I listed at sewfaux use the dark brick red print and the top olive green print (you can catch a glimpse of it in the zipper detail) in that neatly stacked for photography pile .

In the non-log news, there is a new ladybug stool in the works---a collaboration with my friend Deborah, a talented artist, quilt designer and stitcher. She just launched her first etsy store last month, Debadoo! She uses bits of fabrics from the quilts she designs for Bright Hopes , a non-profit quilt group. Their quilts are donated to victims of domestic violence, children in foster care and others. The wall next to Deborah's sewing machine is pinned with the ongoing group of dolls, animals, and pillows that she's constantly assembling with cheery and boisterous prints, ricrac and ribbons. She works with her daughter's drawings to stitch their faces---they're charming, fresh, little labor intensive creations and you need visit Debadoo right away!

The lady bug stool in the works will be fabulous! I promise!

none of the above

2009-02-03T14:30:00.001-05:00

Last night I pulled out a knitting project that I had set aside in the late fall before Christmas knitting tendonitis set-in, before I slipped on my butt twisting my left arm in the icy courthouse parking lot during jury duty where you're not allowed to bring knitting needles! (I just had to get the slipped-on-my-butt part in some post.)

Inspite of my numerous handicaps I finished knitting the collar and armhole ribbing on the vest project, unaware that I might be bringing on an early Spring with it's completion. As I sat at my desk this morning I discovered yesterday's Yarn Harlot calendar page---

Too funny! Can it be?

Maybe this poor wool, this blazing amazing, amber Manos wool is finally a garment (and will bring an early spring?). It has already had another brief life as a boxy sweater. Though I really like the idea of boxy garments, I hated the way it fit after I labored over it one long winter, ripping and knitting to get it to it's ultimate undesirable state. Blocking would have prevented some of the unnecessary modifications I made to it in an effort to make it fit better---look better, but I hadn't discovered the benefits of blocking wool yet.

I couldn't stand the thought of all that expensive yarn sitting there in the closet in an unwearable form for another winter, so I ripped it out, washed the crimped strands and let it dry in hanks. Determined to bend it to my will, I cast on another boxy garment inspired by a fellow Ravelry knitter's modification to Sally Melville's Einstein coat. As I knit along on it I realized the button holes per the instructions would not be big enough for my large wool buttons, but I continued along in denial, until this morning.

I pulled out my inventory of wool buttons to see which set would win a place on the not-so-bad vest. Surprise!!!

None of the above! All the wool buttons looked great with the vest but are disqualified by their size. The silk embroidered buttons would not hold up to the wear and tear of an everyday garment, but did fit the too small buttonholes.

Not to worry, I immediately got an inspiration for a new wool button form that will work with small button holes! To be continued...

Okay, so maybe I can't bring an early spring on by knitting, but finally I love this yarn in it's new form and I'm adding a new button technique to my repertoire.

chairdresser's mannequin

2009-01-26T17:42:00.000-05:00

I have this rickety, black ladderback chair that became my muse several years ago. My husband doesn't understand my attachment to this chair, so he puts it in the attic periodically. You can't sit in it, the ash woven seat is broken, the poorly painted black layer exposes the previous layers of paint and it doesn't go with anything else (in his mind).

Rickety chair was adorned in red, rose and pink flannel stitched into serpentine, celosia -like patterns and tousled fringe. Otherwise known as the Strawberry Queen seat and back slip covers, I accessorized it with a little black footstool in a coordinated slip cover (which I couldn't locate to photograph). I featured it at one craft show to inspire people to place orders for Strawberry Queen slip covers for their own chairs, but to my surprise and dismay, people wanted to buy it. I couldn't sell IT with the broken seat and it didn't occur to me then to call it art.

It's NFS, it's my piling station, my photo prop and my muse, and it doesn't belong in the attic, and in preparation for the upcoming red holiday..ta dah!

fog and snow at 8am

2009-01-19T08:43:00.005-05:00

still winter

2009-01-13T16:58:00.008-05:00

Oh. Yes it's still January. The temperature is going to drop in the next couple of days, after another coating of snow falls. The ground is covered with a combo of ice and slush already. I was compelled to take the camera and the tripod out again to play with the macro option. Getting better.

Now that I've done that I can get back to sewing. Will not be inclined to leave the house, so sewing can be accomplished! Log production resumes.

6 barks

2009-01-07T11:45:00.004-05:00

Day 7 of 2009 and I'm finally posting. Happy New Year!

Here's a tour of our trees this morning in the rain. Korean Ash, Pine, Oak, River Birch, the tree I don't know the name of and a ringer--but it works for me.

I took my camera outside and realized I needed the umbrella. Went back in for the umbrella, went back out, took one picture and realized I needed the tripod. Went back in for the tripod and came back out and started shooting to create the tour of trees in our yard. Documenting the significant trees took long enough to freeze my un-gloved button-punching finger, but I'll live. Hooked the camera up to my laptop and viewed the shots. (To discover again that I really have to work on utilizing the macro lens better which I only recently discovered). Cropping and sizing in Photoshop, assembling them into position and calling upon the professional Photoshopper in the household to finalize the file...all took way more time than it would have if I could think of something to write.

But now I have new bark reference for future log creations.

...sleet nor hail or is that sleet or hail...

2008-12-31T16:59:00.005-05:00

Audition for USPS delivery position...

I had a mission to fulfill this morning and if I had opened the shades at 6:30 this morning I probably wouldn't have baked "gift" scones for delivery today. But I didn't open the shades and I did bake scones and there was a snowstorm brewing. I managed delivery----

Happy New Year!

perfect weather

2008-12-20T14:30:00.002-05:00

Felled by tendonitis at the most inopportune time ...the weather is perfect for doing tendon-inflaming things like knitting (any weight yarn with any size needle), sewing (on the sewing machine) and finishing all those fiber gifts (YIKES!)!

But I can work the oven and the camera, so all is not lost. Behold winter wonderland.

Scarfarama WIP's

2008-12-15T13:57:00.010-05:00

Santa's helper is working hard to get the scarfarama segment of the Christmas gifts knit, but her wrists and thumbs started to hurt, so she decided to practice "picturing" for awhile to change the thumb and wrist action. Noticing that typing is not helping the wrist and thumb situation, maybe I'll have to move to the kitchen segment next...

Two done---
This one is Lorna's Laces, wool and silk.

This yarn is from Fabulosity on etsy, one of my first purchases there.

Two to go---
Vintage Icelandic wool that I dyed with leftover acid dyes to put my outdoor dyeing studio in hibernation.

Don't know if I can give this one up though---liking the results. Hmmm.

Faux for the holidays!

2008-12-11T13:38:00.004-05:00

I've started this post three times, until today I haven't gotten anywhere with it. I read other blogs sporadically and realize that they post every day or almost, which astounds me. I'm happy to know that these creative people make things and write about their process too, all on a daily basis. I aspire to that ability. Maybe it's the writing thing? Maybe I should "picture" each day, maybe that's the solution?

I wasn't when I started writing this post, but I am now....deep into Santa's workshop mode. Trust me, no one needs a sweeping view of every surface filled with something in the process, perhaps just a slice of the overflow...

It just doesn't look like a Martha Stewart environment. Who wouldn't love a dedicated room to wrap presents? Oh, just me? Well, in my parallel universe I have a Martha Stewart room set aside for just that task! Drawers, cubbies, scissors, a variety of adhesives, plenty of tables, nice flooring, good lighting, plenty of ribbon dispensers, shipping dept, regular UPS pick-up. As long as we're talking parallel universe, I'm adding a Martha Stewart kitchen equipped to make all those tasty holiday treats with an assistant who has just returned from the grocery store with the ingredients I forgot...ahhh!

Anyway. Have my knitting and dyeing mojo back! Yesss! Won't my brother and his family in New Mexico be happy (I'm sure they don't read this) when they open their box this year and find that each one has received a knitted ______ in my hand-dyed yarn? I'm knitting with each in mind, but it just occurred to me to put their four items in the box, wrapped and unmarked and let them decide who gets what! We'll be i-chatting on Christmas day and responses will be noted. (Aunt Susan is pretty scarey.)

On top of Santa's workshop activities, I'm slowly rolling out another store on etsy, "sewfaux", just for my chenille textiles---my studio samples, my prototypes! I won't imagine going into production on any one chenille item but there are on-going themes. Finishing and photographing these pieces for this new shop has been great for collecting my thoughts on this years work and clearing the slate for 2009.

Surely there will be plenty of whimsically-minded people out there in this economy needing cotton Buche Noel Logs this holiday! No matter that timing is everything. Gotta have a sense of humor these days or you're in trouble. Hoping to get it all online this week just Faux the holidays!

local talent

2008-11-20T14:21:00.013-05:00

Had to put away the knitting needles or at least tuck them under the table to turn on the sewing machine and finish up a group of chenille pillows, log bolsters, rugs and a stool for a local Holiday craft sale. Tucked in a few lavender sachets and delivered them.

Take a break from Black Friday at the big chains this Friday! Come out to the vineyard and farmlands at the East End of Long Island for a charming collection of artisan and craftspeoples creations for the holidays:

The 17th Annual Country Parlor Holiday Sale
The Grange Hall
Sound Ave at Church Lane
Riverhead,NY

Nov 28 Fri- 9-3,
Nov 29 Sat 9-3,
Nov 30 Sun 10-2

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 4, 2008

2008-11-04T09:31:00.004-05:00

Vote. Vote now!

re: Pumpkin altar

2008-11-03T21:35:00.003-05:00

The pumpkin altar worked its magic yesterday!

There is a lot of crown moulding and trim that needs to be painted in our house. I had primed the bedroom trim on Saturday. Everything was going relatively white yesterday morning until I finished a coat of white paint on the kitchen/dining area trim and realized that the Master Sander had not sanded the doorway to the bedroom where I needed to go next with my white paint brush. So I started looking for the rosey brown paint I bought a couple of years ago for my kitchen counter/table top. It was nowhere to be found. The Master Sander must have thrown it out during one of his purges of what he thinks are too many cans of paint. (Thanks dear.)

I looked through my paint swatch file for the original rosey brown color but was overcome with the impulse to paint it Benjamin Moore's Jack-o-Lantern orange! The table top in it's new cheeto-cheese puff-cheezit- glowing orange incarnation last night.

Explain that! Pretty sure it was the pumpkin altar that caused this!

Pumpkin Altar

2008-10-30T21:29:00.004-04:00

Fall is the best season in my book.

Having grown up on the West Coast where the change of seasons is barely noticeable in some locations, I'm always amazed (and delighted) as each Fall unfolds and the trees put on their colorful show up and down the East Coast.

Here on Long Island it's all falling leaves now and hordes of people filling our rural roads in search of the perfect pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins in or buy dried cornstalks or hay bales.

I set up my own little pumpkin altar near my work table hoping that it will continue to inspire my future projects colorwise until the Christmas thing takes over.

Pumpkin season doesn't come to an end Friday on Halloween...there's still pumpkin pie season and well, it can last into December, though the leaves will be long gone. It might just be to much to ask of my pumpkin altar.

Home from Rhinebeck

2008-10-20T23:00:00.001-04:00

It was a chilly, crowded, woolly weekend in Dutchess County, NY at the Sheep and Wool Show! Knitware was not only appropriate this year but necessary. From my vantage point it's a parade of glorious wool that's been knitted, crocheted, woven, felted etc.

Thanks to all that dropped by A29---to sniff the lavender-emitting kits and sachets, hear the lavender wand explanation and view my embroidered wool button display. And a big shout out to my longtime friends Sue and Jamie for giving me a home away from home for the weekend!

Though I missed the ravelry action outside, I did find two authors whose books inspired my needles in the last year. In building 26 I found Linda Repasky aka Woolen Whimsies in her well-appointed stall displaying framed samples of her punchneedle work, wool threads, kits to make colorful "standing wool" mats, punch needle tools (the best ones!) and her wonderfully done vinegar grained frames (which I hope I can find when I unpack!). Her book, is an inspirational and helpful guide for your punchneedle ideas. On another break I passed by the book signing area as things were winding down to find Lynne Barr and thank her for her book, Knitting New Scarves, full of interesting knit constructions inspired by modern architecture!

The road home...leaves have peaked, I couldn't find my camera, but I did have my phone, so while driving the Taconic...

Ahhh, I miss the leaves already!

Fiber Tribe

2008-10-07T23:29:00.016-04:00

6 more days! Countdown mode to next weekend's show, October 18-19, at the Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck, NY. It's a fabulous fiber event amidst the rolling hill and dale of Dutchess County awash in Fall color where breeders of sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, bunnies...) show their animals, their fleece and spun yarns, where spinners, dyers, mills and creators show their stuff and ply their services and yarns etc. I want to mention my talented boothmates--- The Paisley Studio and Thimble folk---here's my Thimblefolk sheep pincushion treasure from last year overseeing my work table. I'm hoping to snag a few hooked pumpkins from the Paisley Studio this year.

Working diligently to amass more lavender wands with the velvet

ribbon I dyed this summer and assembling lavender accessory kits, writing patterns, tagging and pricing. Still have lots more buttons to embroider with the wool I've been over-dyeing. The list goes on, the work continues up to the last moment!

Hope to see you there!

Flock and Fiber

2008-10-07T13:52:00.003-04:00

So I was in Oregon on the weekend of the 28th for a family wedding (Yay! Jamie and Seth!).

I spent part of Saturday at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, south of Portland. I arrived as it opened and took one picture of the quiet green---

it looks like no one was there...but it quickly filled as I spent my time inside the two halls wandering around the booths. I got my first skeins of Blue Moon Fiber's Socks that Rock early, as I was afraid if I waited it would look like the Fold's booth down the aisle from me at Rhinebeck---deluged with people and no way to see anything. I was so just thrilled to be a civilian and get to shop with interesting entrepeneurs and vendors. I did to get spend time in the Dicentra Hand Dyes booth admiring her great color sense and dyeing skill---only could decide on one lovely skein of Fall-y colored yarn and realized she's on etsy, so I can visit anytime! I quickly ran out of time to spend there and didn't get to try any spinning wheels out...another time and place.

It was a great day weatherwise --- really enjoyed the variety of regional vendors and talking to the sheep and mingling with the fiberholics. Hope I can go back next year and spend more time...we'll see.

knitting The Shawl

2008-09-13T07:59:00.003-04:00

More of the August report---

Months ago my mother and I were talking about about the variety of knitting and yarn today! She was once a knitting instructor when there the world of knitting was much smaller and there was no internet. I said the last thing I could imagine was lace knitting. And she said it would be nice to have a lace shawl, not to be contrary, of course. Hmmm...perfect idea for her upcoming birthday. How hard would it be? She sent me a pattern clipped from a vintage Vogue knitting magazine--- written instructions for a leaf-patterned stole...except there was a error in the pattern.

You don't really want to read the details of my indecision and false starts, so let's just say four yarn selections later and a change of patterns I have finished The Shawl. I probably would have abandoned this project without my knitting pals, Jean and Karen who on a weekly basis solved problems and cajoled me to finish it, or Ravelry where I found many lace-knitting questions answered or without Shannon's scrumptious hand-dyed yarns, first in Teal then in Raspberry Jam. Countless mornings and evenings of knitting and unknitting ended last weekend when I blocked it on my bedroom floor. (I think I love blocking! It's such a revelation!)

Here's a peek at The Shawl, Mom's belated birthday present...don't worry she's already gotten a preview.

bark-quet on the wall

2008-09-12T09:45:00.001-04:00

This blogging thing is not happening as frequently as I'm making things so, I'll try to catch up now!

My work table was piled high with chenille-making debris throughout August as I completed a piece to submit for a "call for entry".

It started with a scribble that I kept pinned up at eye level when I was sewing.

To begin yet another log-themed piece I stacked up my collection of natural colored fabrics. As I did more sewing I got more bold and added pinks, oranges, purple and greens to broaden the palette. I would have used more outrageous colors but I didn't have time to make two pieces, one for this world and one for Susan's parallel universe. It came together over the month and I got it photograped and mailed to meet the entry deadline, now we wait to hear it's status. You may see it here, and only here in it's 27" x 36" glory.

I may have to start my own exhibition in order to find the perfect category for my hybrid work...

one summer project

2008-08-11T12:08:00.015-04:00

I was introduced to the punchneedle process last spring, by my friend Sarah, an accomplished rug-hooker. She got me started with the tools and a fistful of wool thread. Until then I was not a wool lover in any big way, knitting with wool only occasionally. Though I was curious about Punchneedle process it was not love at first sight, that is, until I threw my punchneedle supplies into my suitcase and took it with me on a trip West last summer.

It started to gel for me then. I found myself making lots of circular swatches to find a comfort level with the subdued colors of the wool DMC Medici thread. A growing mountain of puffy, wooly circles ended up becoming buttons. More on buttons later...

I've come to love and appreciate wool through the dyeing process. I love the way wool takes up the dyes and the depths you can get (or some people can get with the dyeing process). I spent some time this weekend transforming a pile of pale pastel skeins of DMC wool into a pile of intense vibrant skeins. I'm not methodical about this dyeing process yet, but I have a good time in a mad scientist kinda way creating colors and dipping skeins in one jar and another. I'm sure there'll come a time when I want to duplicate and control the process better.

I did have a plan though for the specific colors I needed to round out my palette and I'm happy with the weekend results. A new collection of buttons for the Fall are in the making!

lavender tender or urban girl meets her own backyard

2008-07-12T19:51:00.012-04:00

I usually have my lavender processed by the first week in July. What happened this year? I was not paying close attention to the garden or the calender. So now I'm scrambling to cut the deep purple 'Grosso' and pale lavender 'Provence' stems before all the buds are open and dropping to the ground! Keeping in mind the perils in my untended garden, umm, those blood-sucking ticks on the swaying weeds, I'm compelled to overdress for the occasion. Long pants, rubber knee boots, garden chapeau, bug spray and clippers...urban girl meets her own backyard. Darn! There was no one to capture this vision digitally, or at least I don't think there was.

I grew up in the suburbs of San Francisco, moved to the city or rather, to Los Angeles for college, then to Manhattan and up to the Hudson Valley, never really touching the earth until I moved to the East End of Long Island 16 years ago. The passion for gardening was fleeting, as there was too much nature to contend with. (I dream of caring for a tickless rooftop patio! This coming from our household's best tick magnet!) Anyway, the lavender remains without too much help from me...hey, I did weed! This year the younger plants have matured and are yielding more lavender than ever. So the cut stems become lavender wands...drying out and then woven with my hand-dyed velvet...

Outta Town

2008-06-14T21:02:00.002-04:00

I'm out in California celebrating my mom's 80th birthday and looking forward to Fathers' Day tomorrow. Though I filled my suitcase with yarn projects (enough for 9 days away from home), I don't seem to have made any progress on them. But we have re-organized my dad's office to accomodate his watercolor work. At least someone will be making something soon.

I took a break on Friday and went to Berkeley to visit my longtime friend Sheila. I rely on her to guide me to the most interesting spots in the Bay Area. Breakfast is my favorite meal so starting at Cafe Fanny, Alice Waters' tiny cafe always makes me happy. Mmmm! Cafe au lait and a cinnamon twist from Acme Baking next door and a sculptural epi loaf for pictures.

Next stop, across the Bay in Sausalito. I have been wanting to stop in at the Heath factory for several years and finally we made it there. (I grew up eating off Heathware dishes and when my parents lived in Sausalito I could easily visit the factory seconds pile.) The company was purchased a few years ago and now has a new generation of fans. The factory store is manned by helpful Heath enablers. Thoroughly enjoyed that stop.

A quick bite in the shopping center in Strawberry, I don't know what they call the shopping center now but it's an upscale enclave of lovely stores and tasty restaurants. As we were eating our petite lunch, Bonnie Raitt walked past wearing a black straw cowboy hat unsuccessfully disguising her theatrical red hair. (Didn't even think of pulling out the camera!)

We doubled back to Berkeley and Fourth Street.

Had enough time before I had to get back on the road to take a ritual turn through the Gardener, cross the street to charming Castle in the Air (stationary/pen/ephemera heaven), to sketCh for tasty ice cream and granita treats (mmmm), into Builders Booksource to examine their copies of 500 Chairs and finishing off with a tour of Paper Source. There is so much more to look at on Fourth Street but one must have priorities!

What a great day Sheila! Thanks.

dyeing to be or not to be...

2008-05-24T18:55:00.000-04:00

This April I took a wool dyeing class at Webs in Northampton, MA. It was great fun, I posted pictures of the class activity then and an array of colorful skeinlets that were a result of the class exercise. What I didn't post were pictures of the sock yarn I dyed at the end of the day with the leftover dye solutions. A little canary, a touch of peacock and some cherry, that was all I had left.

I wanted to continue dyeing at home, but lacked an area to do it in. Over the course of the next few weeks I gathered supplies and more dyes and cleared a counter in my garage for mixing dye stocks and painting. Finally, Thursday I mixed the dye stocks and on Friday I was able to do my first dyeing project, finishing the sock yarn from class! I re-skeined it into a larger hank and did some over-dyeing inspired by the new leaf growth colors in the backyard!

Ready to knit into a pair of leafy Spring socks--- should I call it garden camouflage?

1 out of 500 Chairs, page 83

2008-05-17T18:47:00.008-04:00

I got a nice surprise in the mail on Friday. My copy of the recently published 500 Chairs arrived and inside on Page 83 is a chair that I submitted to Lark Publications on their call for entries last spring. I'm very happy to have my work included.

I suspected going in that wood and metal and hard surfaced entries would be the norm, I gave it a shot anyway. I'm also relieved that my photography of the chair is passable. Ppphew! So here's a similar angle of the chair, if not the same shot that's in the book and a view of the back and an detail shot.

I'm a penny rug fan and wanted to relate to them with my chenille stitching. So this is one example of the penny rug effect on my work.

Washing instructions

2008-05-09T21:14:00.007-04:00

Where did April go? Not that I haven’t been making anything…I have lots of projects going but nothing completed. Sewing chenille pieces, designing knitted pieces unsuccessfully, putting together lavender sachet kits for my etsy shop, setting up a wool dyeing studio in my crowded garage…and well, life.

This morning as I was on my way to the washer with a stack of chenille pieces (logs to be exact), I was thinking about how much I like them before they're washed. So I set up the camera and took some shots. Once they're washed and dried all you want to do is snuggle with them.

I also really like the backs...if I intended to draw with thread it would look like this.

Anyway, I'm having a very capable seamstress install a zipper in a guinea pig log to see how feasible it is. My dream come true---that all future logs will have that option and some overlock too. Oh, the little things!

Dasi's bootees

2008-04-11T20:02:00.009-04:00

When I signed up to get on Ravelry, a great beta website for knitters, wool dyers, crocheters and any other aspect of yarn you can think of, I had no idea it would be such a great resource. You can document projects you knit, see what others are knitting, look for yarns for patterns, patterns for yarns and more. Everyone on Ravelry, it seemed, had knit a pair of the cutest, tiniest Mary Jane bootees with buttoned crossing straps. After I knit my first pair of socks (and only, so far) I had enough hand-painted merino sock yarn left over to knit baby bootees! I sewed the first one up to see just how cute it was when the second bootee was in progress----

Until I sewed up the second one I had no idea how much they differed in size. Same needles, but different tension? I knitted a third bootee---and came up with a matching pair. Pphew!

These were for Dasi who arrived last week. Congratulations to my friends Deborah and Andrew!

If you need to knit a pair or three of Saartje's bootees, the pattern is available online.

Dyeing day

2008-04-06T20:57:00.002-04:00

I love hand-painted-, kettle-dyed-, hand spun-, multi-colored yarns, however it happens. Inspired by these yarns I wanted to dye my own palette of ribbons and yarns, so I've looked for a workshop in the Northeast. And...

I drove from Long Island to Massachusetts early Sunday morning to take a class in dyeing yarn with acid dyes at Webs in Northampton. Gail Callahan aka Kangaroo Dyer, Webs resident dyer, was our instructor. Gail shared her dyeing history with us and we made our introductions/confessions. She gave us a lesson in the use of the niddy noddy and we started skeining our base yarnlets.

Everyone seemed to master that process, yarnlets were then dunked into our buckets of water and vinegar solution and we ventured out into the retail sales area of Webs to clip samples of various fibers from cones to test along with our yarnlets.

As if that wasn’t enough, to be in the store unfettered by April sale shoppers, we moved into the warehouse to clip more yarns and gather stray skeins! My head was swimming with too many fiber options or lack of latte, I don’t know which.

Fibers gathered… we measured 3 “primary” Cushing dyes into our quart containers, made pastes with tepid water and added boiling water to create our 3 primary dyestocks.

From the dyestock bases we then measured “transitioning” combinations into 12 smaller containers.

The alchemy began when our yarnlets were submerged into the multitude of cups that obscured the tables. One by one, the yarnlets were removed from the cups, wrapped in plastic wrap and popped in the microwave. They emerged as shrink-wrapped spring rolls and rinsed in the sink to ohs! and ahs! We had 3 different base Shetland yarns to choose from for our test mini-skeins and the differing results were evident as we spread them out to compare.

Everyone had chosen full skeins and hanks of additional yarns to experiment with until the class was over. What a variety! I was so busy with my own that I didn’t get a chance to shoot anybody’s creations. Mine are hanging in the motel bathroom until tomorrow’s return home.

Gail wrangled the group through the different steps of the process throughout the day and removed the intimidation that some of us/me felt about the chemistry of the procedures and empowered a roomful of novices and inspired the more experienced dyers. I would recommend a trip to Webs, of course to see and buy yarns (Kangaroo dyer’s creations among ‘em) and most certainly to take a dyeing class from patient Gail.

Tomorrow, with the class out of the way, I will be more able to focus on shopping at Webs!

Zipper = headache = no logs

2008-03-30T10:12:00.008-04:00

I've been avoiding making logs lately, because I have yet to solve the zipper issue that I think exists. I've had lots of interest in the log bolster, but I have been procastinating going into production, even if it's only a small edition until I resolve the no zipper/yes zipper issue. Once the fabric is constructed it's not easy to seam accurately due to the thickness of the fabric, so thinking about installing a zipper just becomes a headache. Zipper = headache = no logs.

Instead I chase the marauding guinea hens out of my yard and into the neighbors with a camera which stops my dogs from barking. A win win situation all around.

Pictureless on Long Island

2008-03-27T17:55:00.005-04:00

I had such a great week of fiber activities to blog about last week…but didn’t take any pictures. What was I thinking? I had the camera with me but neglected to use it. Not on the fiberarts field trip to Manhattan with my very pregnant friend Deborah---Sullivan Street tour of Purl Patchwork and Purl Soho yarns, Global Table, or on to lunch at Le pain Quotidian, or up to City Quilter for a very interesting talk by Donna Wilder, Free Spirit fabrics founder. Great! No pictures! People talking about making things all day long. No pictures!

Went to a meeting of the Spinning Study Group of Long Island in Smithtown, in an historic barn--- 50 or so people, all ages, arrived to set up their spinning apparatus, roving, yarn and projects! Everyone was so willing to share information about their wheels and fibers---I’m joining that bunch! Can’t wait for the next meeting---but once again, no camera.

April will be better. I won't forget to feed the blog!

log cabin or cabin fever?

2008-03-08T11:26:00.010-05:00

I'm accustomed to sending pictures from my window to my family on the opposite coast to confirm or deny our weather as reported on the national news. So here's the grey and drippy weather report from the windows overlooking the Peconic River.

That monochromatic stuff going on outside inspired me to work on this multi-colored chenille piece. Based on the traditional quilt block, Log Cabin, I thought it would be a witty topping for a handmade twig stool, get it? Log Cabin---twig stool! Humor aside, it's another multi-color, technicolor, no colorway approach so I can use up all my commercially dyed flannel. What remains are the centers of the log cabin block, a red square to symbolize a chimney, at least that's what I remember about it. Spiraling strip or back and forth strip? I'll throw it in the washer and see how the red centers look and then finish it up on this grey, drippy day!

Log Jam

2008-03-01T10:27:00.001-05:00

Some might be aware that one of my other obsessions is logs and/or twigs. A few years back I purchased a number of ebay footstools and one of my favorite finds was a stool made from a log. I envisioned it with a chenille bark cushion, taffeta ribbons...

More log items followed... bolsters, more stool covers. Who doesn't love their logs soft and huggable?

So when I was contemplating an entry for Lark Book's 500 Tables last month, I turned to logs for inspiration, naturally. I started two tables about 2 weeks before the submission was due (good planning). I was felled by the flu for about a week, I rallyed and completed one of the tables for the photo and got the entry in the mail. Pphew! (Table #2 is in a dormant state, as yet unfinished.)

This is how Table #1 log table happened! I laminated layers of 2 inch think dense foam for the logs and then I whacked away at them with one of my favorite tools, the electric carving knife. I stitched together the bark fabric by layering flannel fabric, stitching on the bias, slashing through all layers, then stitching the stacked bias strips onto a backing, then finally washing and drying it. I wrapped the bark fabric around the whacked foam logs and hand stitch them closed or secured them with velcro. (The pictures below are the ones I take along the way just to record the process for myself and to get a different view of the piece through the camera lens).

Table #1 was tentatively put together the night before I had to photograph it. The next morning I couldn't balance it when I tried to position it in front of the seamless paper. A few hours later, sanity restored, I solved the problem by flipping the base log upside down!

We'll see how Lark responds to this soft log table.

Ta Da!

2008-02-28T10:08:00.002-05:00

There's a category of my ongoing work that I haven't exposed on my limited posts so far. Time for my shirred surface/chenille textile work.

Many years ago I saw an article in Sew...???? on making a chenille vest from layered voile, stitched in channels, slashed and washed, probably authored by Nannette Holmberg. I haven't been able to find the article since, but I liked the idea of the technique. I didn't have any voile fabrics to work with but I did have brightly colored flannels. So I stacked them up, stitched in channels, cut and washed the sample and was instantly hooked on the raucus results.

I made piles of pillow-size squares from assorted flannel solids, prints and plaids. I loved the density of the surface and the complexity of the colors. The pillow size samples grew to bed size pieces to footstool covers to chair covers and stand alone soft sculpture. I have a large body of this work, due in part to it's bulk, but also to my obsessiveness.

In January I received a notice from Lark Books that a chenille piece I had submitted last spring was accepted for the soon-to-be-published, 500 Chairs. (Yay! Insert Cuba Gooding Jr dance here.) Previews of that as May approaches. Within days of that notice, emails from Lark reminded me to submit work for possible inclusion in next years' 500 series---what else but, 500 Tables. I worked myself into a tizzy to complete a table and came down with the flu, but I got it submitted. More about this later too.

The flannel is flying, flannel is taking over everything...so it's time to post the evidence. How about a rug I started last year? I resigned myself to the obvious colors that flannel is merchandised in the stores in (I can't make myself use too many pastels---you'll see that). My strategy is use all colors so the piece doesn't have an obvious "colorway". It's not complete yet, maybe a few more bands of color and then back into the washing machine and dryer for a final fluff up.

not joining YA

2008-01-29T19:49:00.000-05:00

Hi! My name is Susan and I’m a yarnaholic! Or at least I thought I was until I saw some extensive yarn stashes on Ravelry.com and Flickr.com. I’m somewhat relieved to see that I really am not a candidate for YA. Yeh, but isn't denial the first sign of...whatever!

Sock knitting has gotten in the way of, well, real life. That doesn’t mean I’m a yarnaholic. Tax preparations swamp my desk, but until I can't see my laptop screen that’s not a problem. Yesterday two more knitting books arrived from Amazon, I'm sure that's not a sign of .... Anyway, I knit my first sock in the last week and I documented it’s progress for my Mom. She was my measure for knitting abilities as she had been a knitting instructor decades ago and she was not surprised by my sock pictures. For years I thought I was incapable of knitting socks. I found proof of that in my archival yarn stash (in your what?). Two skeins of teal blue sportweight yarn that I bought 20 years ago and had cast on stitches on a set of double-pointed needles and then abandoned it. I just didn’t get it.

Socks are a revelation to me now! One, two skeins of some hand-dyed yarn and you're ready to go! Right? Not exactly. You need three more sets of double-pointed bamboo needles or at least I did. And you need new stitch holders and then markers too. Next came Ann Budd’s book Getting Started Knitting Socks to bolster my confidence. (What obsessive behavior?) Finally I’d run out of things to buy to launch the socks. I had to actually start knitting the socks, though not without consulting a knittinghelp video for the new method of casting on required! My lovely skeins of Koigu KPPPM #100 are now my first sock (and probably the second sock). I’m intrigued by how you shape a sock and the possibilities for design seem endless. Not to mention the really cool yarn one will have to buy for all those endless designs! Oh no I’m not a …

hearts in season

2008-01-13T14:25:00.001-05:00

I've been stitching a pile o' silk hearts!

Heart sachets have been a constant in my Lavender Trifles repertoire and with the recent opening of my etsy shop, I'll be able to present them "in season"!

Lavender is such a nostalgic fragrance, it naturally lends itself to antique textiles. My sachets were first inspired by antique Crazy quilts saturated with embroidery, pieced in unusual color combinations and full of quirky imagery.

When I start on a group of sachets, I rely on the palette of intense colors that the dupioni silks come in and ever-expanding collection of embroidery floss to guide the way. Most of the time I have no plan or pattern for piecing, other than using up scraps. Once I have pieced the fabric, I use a minimum of embroidery stitches on the silk's slubby surface.

One thing leads to another and there are always ways to stray from the original intention. Now there's a pile o' natural linen hearts with ricrac and embroidery in progress. And with a work table full of embroidery threads I'll have to clean it up with my punchneedle and whip up some buttons! But that's another post.

Sachets. Fill em, shoot em and upload them before Valentine's day has come and gone.

Is it foamy vs felt?

2008-01-11T10:36:00.001-05:00

In a recent copy of Selvedge magazine there was an short article about Pia Wallen. I have liked her simple, sewn, industrial felt forms since I first saw them. It reminded me that her work inspired the "foamy" gift packages I've been sewing for a couple of years ago.

I was wrapping some mundane birthday presents for my husbands special day when I got the inspiration to sew the foamy sheets together to make a more interesting gift wrapping. I bought two packets of the large Foamy sheets and then just started zigzagging sheets together on my sewing machine, cutting edges with decorative scissors and folding and restitching to form large envelopes or this year, large bucket-y structures for more bulky gifts like sweatpants. Paper punches worked to create slots for ribbon threading....

I get such a good response to the foamy wrappers when I give a gift, that I thought maybe I should really figure out how to get better stitching results on my Bernina sewing machine. Using a regular foot or even a walking foot on my late model Bernina (1001) does not produce even stitches and it's difficult to feed under the presser foot. My local source for Bernina accessories suggested that I get a teflon coated foot or a roller foot which would cost $52 -$80. So I'm hoping to find an online source for this antique foot or maybe I should just convert to industrial felt? Hmmm. I'll attack both fronts.

out of the loop...

2008-01-08T21:58:00.001-05:00

... I’m back. Happy New Year!

The holidays impacted me, in a good way. I love gift giving and I’m always inspired to make most of the gifts on my list. My ambitions out-paced my capabilities and time. Sure there was baking, and sewing, and knitting and punching-needling, and more knitting and yarn-buying and online shopping and actual bricks and mortar shopping and lots of package making (like my machine-stitched envelopes and bags below made with sheets of foamy from kids aisle in Michaels, Joann, etc) and shipping and still finishing gifts. Yikes!

Knitting dominated December and continues still into January. I just gotta knit, because I just gotta buy yarn, due to my limited self-control in the yarn acquisition department. Back in October I discovered that I too could knit in the round when I conceived of a bucket-ish kind of drawstring sack. With familiar circular needles I calculated and knit and calculated and the bag worked out shape wise and I also picked up the I-cord process. If I just hadn’t wanted to explore felting, it would have been fine. But no, I thoughtlessly washed it and dried it with a white towel, thereby destroying it’s rustic handspun qualities but overcoming my fear of seamless knitting!

Anyway… that in-the-round project gave me confidence to join the millions that knit socks and gloves on 3 or more double-pointed needles. I didn’t want to be left out. I selected a basic pattern online for a fingerless glove at and a learning skein of fluff from AC Moore. The biggest hurdle was in that first round, linking the two ends and then keeping the stitches from twisting long enough to see a tubular formation. I was just in too much of a hurry to check my gauge, so after conquering the first round and knitting my way up to the thumb situation and following the thumb formation steps, I had to rip it all out and start over, adjusting the gauge so the glove would actually fit my niece’s hand and not a gorilla’s hand. Though a shot of the fuzzy fuschia fingerless glove on a gorilla’s hand might have been interesting I opted to finish the two gloves for Meagan.
Proof of this pivotal moment is not well documented by an out of focus photo, here again enthusiasm got the best of me.

As it did again when the Koigu yarn array in my lys finally caught my attention and I took home 3 skeins of KPPPM blues and reds, envisioning piles of Koigu fingerless gloves for my Christmas list. After the first few inches of glove number 1, I realized there just wasn’t enough time for me to knit them and ship them to their destinations for Christmas.

Other Christmas preparations overtook me and after a week I had already abandoned the fingerless glove idea in favor of a feather and fan/ chevron Koigu scarf pattern from Joelle Hoverson's book Last minute gifts to knit. I have the book on my list now as well as other knitting books to inspire. Or for that matter, it's easy enough to go to flickr and see all the amazing knitted projects and get inspired!

So as I look back at December there were lots of susanbmade things to record---I just didn't realize it until yesterday. The Noro Sakura fingerless gloves (unfinished),

a brioche stitch scarf in cotton yarn from the Yarn Garden, Portland,OR,

the pile of wool and cotton floss punchneedle buttons destined for my etsy shop,

and more...if I could control the placement of jpgs!

Oh Yes! Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T08:04:00.002-05:00

Since I'm into process and sharing process and January 1 has rolled by, it's okay to share a story about this year's holiday card-making.

For more than 16 Christmases my husband and I have made our holiday cards. Our friends and family tell us that they anticipate it's arrival and that it's collected by some.

It’s a collaborative project for us. Sometimes we work in a series. The year big Louie, a handsome 97 pound mixed breed rescue dog, came into our lives we started a family portrait series. The next year we continued the family portrait series including Louie's twin, Archie, a 14 pound tweener dachshund. (Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzennegger’s canine counterparts.)

This year as every year, we began the process on the eve of Thanksgiving, because the cook doesn’t have enough to do already, and that’s when panic is beginning to set in as the mailing date approaches. We started by taking pictures on a huge blue tarp on the back lawn. Our yard still had remnants of fall color and the temperature was 50-ish, snow was not in the forecast. Dressed in full winter regalia, down jackets, boots, hats and gloves for the shot, we each took our turn on the tarp demonstrating snow angels as the other one climbed the ladder with the camera. Archie and Louie had already been captured mid-snow angel a month before and archived. In between Thanksgiving preparations the work began on our respective computers to manipulate this snow angel imagery for the Holiday card. 36 hours later it still wasn’t gelling, it wasn't working at all. Set the pictures aside. Dump the snow angel idea altogether.

At this stage, and we usually have this stage, I turn to my stack of origami books for inspiration. As I opened the first book, it dawned on me that I could search online for any origami fold I could think of. I had an inkling of an alternative solution for the card, using an origami component and a card stock base like a series of cards we had produced years earlier. I wanted a fish fold and I found a great little video of a fish fold. Watched the video a few times with paper in hand and figured it could work. Dennis agreed and we started designing the fish paper and the card base.

HOW TO MAKE A PAIR OF TEABAG SACHETS

2007-12-04T18:53:00.001-05:00

The teabag sachets evolved after I finished a private label order for a client. The sachet I was making for them was a postcard-sized linen rectangle with a loop at the top. At the same time, I was getting into loose leaf teas and everything I made turned into a tea accessory. The large rectangle morphed into a teabag shape with a loop, then the loop was replaced by the button and buttonhole and one sachet became a pair of sachets. Unbuttoned, the sachet can loop over a hanger or button onto a hanging garment….or drop in a coat pocket hanging in the closet.

I'm just getting my etsy shop set-up, the first listings are the teabag sachets…still time to get them for Christmas! If you sew, you can use the pattern and directions that follow to make your own. I chose linen for these sachets, a somewhat open weave, so the fragrance can pass easily through the fabric. There's a great online source for dried lavender and botanicals---http://www.atlanticspice.com/.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1. Using the pattern cut two from your fabric for a pair of sachets.

Step 2. Fold on the dotted line, using a ¼” seam allowance, sew across the bottom and up the side ending about 1” before the top. Then sew across the top and down the diagonal. Clip corners. Turn inside out.

Step 3. Fold the open corner into the center forming the teabag shaped top. Press well.

Step 4. Make a button hole. Fill the sachet with lavender about 2/3 full (about 2/3 cup). Top-stitch across the sachet from side to side at the base of the triangle. This secures the dried lavender. Sew button on the second sachet.

about lavender trifles

2007-11-29T19:44:00.001-05:00

At the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck in October I sold out of white sheep sachets---recycled wool moth-chaser sachets filled with dried lavender, a moth deterrent. Perfect for wool lovers!

One summer night when I was walking my dachshund, Archie, he began chasing...moths. The moth-chaser sachet idea was born that night! So a simple black felt rectangle folded in half, stitched on the sides, then stitched across the two matched seams--became the Archie head. Felt ears, two brown vintage buttons for eyes, a pink felt tongue and a ribbon leash made it into the Archie Moth-chaser!

It's a short leap from dachshund head to sheep's head. A little ear tweaking and a silk yarn top knot! The sheep sachets are made from recycled wool sweaters, which should make sheep happy, vintage buttons, recycled silk yarn, ribbon or silk spaghetti and dried lavender. Here's a new flock of white sheep about to be stitched...bound for wool stashes everywhere!