Bernard

Bernard has joined his old (we think) flame over on Etsy.
Check him out!

Babette

This tarty little parsnip lady marks the beginning of my journey into the ever-more-popular esty-land.
She'll go home with you for only 30 smackers.
You won't wake up with any regrets, I promise.


Look at those lips—those cheeks—those lashes!
The little tart.

That's Just Not Fair

Just how am I supposed to resist this?
Curse you, Reprodepot!

Maybe I'll think of it as an additional reward for this?

The Hare-Brained Scheme That Actually Worked*

Often, when I am about to go away, I feel the overwhelming desire to pick up a brand new project and fully expect to finish it in the 2-7 days (evenings) I have unrealistically set aside for it. This really never works. I usually get half-way through before I am frustrated at my own unrealistic expectations which causes me to abandon the project entirely or else to stay up way too late to finish it. Therefore, I begin my trip sleep-deprived and am often wearing/carting around something that can be only be called "finished with compromises" (safety pins are my friends).

For once I timed it right. I was overwhelmed with the "need" for a new traveling hat exactly one week prior to departure. I stopped at purlsoho on the way home, agonized briefly over which koigu colorway—for me this is hard, I love wildly colorful patterns in fabric but generally do not like them in my yarn— and was on my merry way. Clutching a printout of sock pixie's beret, I set to casting on and knitting madly. Despite a short period of retreat from some mistakes during a movie that Saturday night (but can I really be blamed for concentrating more on yet another viewing of The Third Man than on my knitting?) I was able to make enough progress that weekend to warrant tucking all other projects away so as to not let them tempt me.

I managed to finish it Friday night, just before heading to the airport. There is a tiny compromise in it...it has a little un-woven-in tail of yarn, but I'm still charmed by it and was happy to wear it.
Oddly enough, (to me, anyway) chevrons proved to be a quite common decorative element in many of the towns that we saw.

Here's the hat in action—though this photo is really all about the background.



*No offense to any hares or relatives of hares. = : x

4 Years Later

After standing gracefully for a few hours atop a smooth white-tiered cake one October Saturday afternoon a few years ago, these guys have been lying haphazardly on a hutch (no not the rabbit-kind), collecting dust in our living room. Since they aren't really in the same catagory as the rest of our toy collection (none of the other toys were invited to this particular event), I thought that they needed a special little home.

The photo credit goes to the cute little guy in the top hat. ;)

Cupcake-a-touille

I like to bake.
It's the most instant-gratification-giving of all of my projects (as opposed to, say, quilting!), plus it doesn't inherently take up space. I also enjoy the decorating process as you can see here, here, and here. I have been looking at Cupcake Bakeshop for the past year or two. I've admired her photographs and tried a few recipes—though I've never been ambitious enough to actually fill a cup cake. (I did do this though, which did take a certain level of ambitiousness.)

So, when she posted about a cupcake round-up, co-hosted with Vanilla Garlic I thought I'd give it a shot.
May I introduce my Cupcake-a-touille cupcake—inspired by ratatouille. We all know zucchini bread, some of us may have seen tomato-cake, and apparently I was not the first person to think up candied eggplant, but all together? Well...OK, then.
I started with a zucchini bread recipe from my copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook. I substituted some apple/tomato sauce for some of the oil and added some butter because I wanted it to be richer. I also added a little cocoa powder because I liked the idea of the cocoa-tomato combo.

My thoughts on the outcome?
Overall I'm pleased, though I don't know if it immediately says ratatouille to me. The smell of the cupcakes right out of the oven was tomato-y and delicious. The lemon flavoring was really strong in the batter, but not as apparent in the final cake itself. Overall the rosemary was good, but a little overwhelming. I would definitely subtract rosemary and add more cayenne to the frosting, but that's a personal taste thing—I like the whole spicy chocolate thing.

Wet ingredients:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup apple/tomato sauce*
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp lemon extract

Dry ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp cocoa
• pinch of dried thyme

Extras:
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup candied eggplant**
• Parsley, rosemary, basil—2 sprigs each—finely chopped




Cream butter, sugar, eggs, oil, and tomato sauce.
Mix dry ingredients together and add to wet, stirring until just combined. Stir in 1 heaping cup of shredded zucchini, 1/2 cup candied eggplant and chopped herbs.

Scoop batter into cupcake wrappers and bake for 22 minutes at 350 degrees.




* Apple/Tomato Sauce.
4 medium plum tomatoes (skinned and seeded) simmered over medium for approx. 20 minutes with 1 small apple (cored, peeled, and chopped).



** Candied Eggplant
1 small eggplant (4 oz) peeled and diced.
Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 cup water and simmer eggplant in simple syrup for about 15 minutes. Spread on baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar and and toast lightly.

Frost cupcakes with:
Chocolate Rosemary Frosting
2 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
1/4 milk

Melt chocolate and stir in 1 Tbsp rosemary. Mix chocolate and softened butter. Beat in powdered sugar. Stir remaining Tbsp. rosemary into the milk and microwave for 30-40 seconds. Add warm rosemary-milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable frosting.

Garnish with a tiny sprig of rosemary.

A Different Kind of Work In Progress

Part of a little project.
It's definitely been "more art, less craft" around here these days.

WIP Friday

Ah yes, Work In Progress. Isn't it all just a work in progress?
This guy has been occupying my #6 needles for a month or two now. The back is done and I'm about a third of the way through the front pieces. It has seen many a stalled subway train. The NYC MTA has not been particularly helpful lately in terms of my being punctual, and frankly, I need all the help that I can get with that.

I am amused by the fact that I have piles of real vintage knit patterns and boxes of real vintage yarn and yet I sought this out this spring because it had a section devoted to patterns based on vintage knit patterns. Then I had to go out and buy more (thankfully on-sale) yarn.

I think it was the allure of 5 st/inch versus 8.5 st/inch. Plus there's no guesswork in figuring out which yarn for which pattern.
Eventually it will be this. Then maybe I will have to find a lighthouse to serve as a backdrop for my photo.

A General Plan

No...it's not craft related, but it's on my mind right now as we work out the details. I'm looking forward to seeing some big mountains and the place where the man ruled over my dad's people one hundred-odd years ago.

I Have Big Feet

It often comes with being tall. Sometimes this is good--when sales roll around and all of the "little" sizes are sold out. Sometimes it is bad--when the stores only ordered one pair of size 10s.
These toasty little guys are the jaywalker socks by grumperina. They were my first socks and I learned the hard way that I need more than 2 balls of yarn to make myself a decent pair of socks to fit my big feet.

I do like my stripey solution, though. This way I get little "surprise" moment when I take my shoes off. At least for now. : )

I also learned that knitting socks is very satisfying in a (relatively) quick-knitting kind of way. (As opposed to an 8 st/inch sweater, ya know?)

I have the yarn for a new pair that I will probably start this winter and finish up about the time that knee-high wool socks seem absurd.
Oh well, I will definitely have them done in time for next winter.
Or maybe I'll surprise myself.

Stilt Man

I think I actually printed this in 2006. I had grand plans for it, but it was overtaken by this print, instead.
Ah well, it's long gone to it's new home. The ink is such a lovely clean blue, and the print was a relatively successful recovery from an aquatint gone horribly, horribly wrong.

2 Weeks Until Our Trip to Capital City!

It's amazing how "true" these little a-la-carte avatars can be. Though A) my eyes aren't really that wonky, B) there's no option for two-tone hair, and C) it's really a shame that they don't have this guy as a T-shirt icon. (I know, it's not the Simpsons, but...)

Try it, it's fun!

Summery Green Vintage Goodness

This top just looked so fresh and summery (and easy!) that I could not resist.



The fabric came from here (a remnant) and the pattern came from here (a treasure trove of affordable patterns sold by a very nice lady--don't mind the utilitarian site design and tiny images).

While viewing this photo I am beginning to see the wisdom of tucking this style of shirt in (as per the pattern illustration), but I guess this is what the kids are wearing these days.

Amber Waves of Grain

Today was harvest day!




No purple mountains here, but still...pretty all-American for the 4th of July, no?
I left a few heads of wheat outside for the birds to snack on.

Before & After

(Before)

Egad. Is this anyway to store your knitting needles?
Um, no.
How about this?
(After)





I have a cheap-ish plastic set of drawers that used to hold art supplies. These have grudgingly been giving way to my growing collection of sewing/knitting/crafting supplies. My organizational skills within these drawers is sketchy at best, which explains the “before” picture. Finding the right sized needles has always been a bit of a thankless task as I wrestle with flailing circular (all the better for subway-knitting) needles and stray double-points.

I have always longingly eyed needle organizers such as these, but I’ve never been 100% in love with any particular design and being the ever-practical gal, I always think “Oh, I can make that. (Famous last words.)

I believe the black and white fabric came from Superbuzzy. It’s been cut and sitting in my closet from a year or so. The cross-stitch print is from purlsoho and also sat around for a while. I often have a hard time cutting into my small pieces of fabric...as if I won’t someday find another piece of fabric that I will love as much as that particular one.
So after having the fabric stare at me for (at least) months I hopped on the train a few weeks ago to spend the afternoon here. There, on the scraps-sold-by-the-pound
table in this booth, I found this little strip of red, sewing-themed Japanese fabric which turned out to be the catalyst for this project. Months of tentative cutting and fabric piles sitting around turned into one day of sewing and completion.

And no, I don’t really store my needles in the grass, but it made such a nice background.

Speaking of Renegade, it was a lovely day. I also picked up this little cutie

from my friend’s wife’s (which makes her my friend, too!) store booth for a friend who is expecting this fall. I also got a lovely tiny crocheted daffodil bobby pin from here.

And finally, one other installment of Before:


And After:


Yum.
It was perfect with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Don't Go In the Water

Yeee-Owwww!
The smocking tease has blossomed into a full-fledged pocket. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I had wanted to add a button-on cephalopod-themed towel, but...I set this aside about a month ago and only picked it back up this week. At least I planned ahead enough to have finished the smocking and assembled the apron part. The actual fish involved a lot of last-minute improvisation. I actually sealed a pin inside it somehow, so I might someday be saying "Ouch" for real whilst wearing this.



Yeah, the lemon wedge is supposed to be for the fish, you know...? I wanted to be holding a shrimp kebab, but that would have involved a little more planning.

A Little Pocket Tease

The May/June Tie One On theme is "Pocket". An idea sprang to mind almost immediately. For once I started working before the weekend prior to the due date. I did this smocking while relaxing with friends out in Long Island over Memorial Day weekend and...I haven't really touched it since. I just need to set a little time aside to finish it so that I'm not mailing the picture in on July first saying, "I'm sorry this is late, but..."

Nobody wants that.



And yes, those are beads. On an apron. Sometimes I'm a little crazy like that.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

OK, so the first week of June is not technically summer, but it was (some of) my vacation.

I have done some silk screening in my day, and I have been etching/printing copper plates at the Art Student's League off-and-on for 6 years or so, but I had never tried letterpress. I honestly didn't really even know how it worked until I set foot in the Center for Book Arts. I was a little apprehensive because I had signed up earlier in the year but the class was cancelled and they seemed a touch scattered when it came to refunding my class fee. But all was forgiven as I began to drop heavy, dingy, little pieces of type into my composing stick, added leading, set up my form on the galley and then locked it into place on the press bed. Oooh. It was a thrill in a totally Luddite, nerdy way. I have no doubt that any future letterpress printing that I do is far more likely to be done with polymer plates (I doubt I could afford the rental time it would take me to typeset anything worthwhile), but I was surprised at how much of a thrill I got from the simple act of printing. It took 2 days to typeset 3 short paragraphs of text, but it was totally worth it. I was actually sad when I ran out of paper. That's why there are a few prints that are only "black" (It's really blue with a little black). And did I mention how fun mixing the ink was? A couple of base colors and a (Pantone) "recipe card." It was like cooking and art all at the same time! Oh, cleaning the press? Not so much fun, but ehn, what can you do?

I am a huge fan of Guys and Dolls, as can be seen here, and a few years ago, I learned that the story that it is based on was written by one Damon Runyon. (And where was he born? That's right... Kansas!)

One eBay search and a few days later, I was the proud owner of this book:


I got this one because of the cover illustration. It was my first little foray into pulp fiction printing.

I feel like a bit of a dork for saying so, but I'm really proud of the print. My teacher called it "a masterpiece", but I think she was just being nice.



Thank goodness for employers with generous vacation plans!

I'm smocked, smocked, to find that, um, smocking is going on here.

Several years ago, when I was simultaneously making my wedding dress and some pillows for an art show/sale, I came across a sewing book in the public library. It caught my eye so I tossed it on my "to check out" pile. It was just one of many sewing books that came home that day. I did not know at that time that I would soon feel compelled to buy my own copy (after checking it out for a ridiculous number of times in a row) and that I would, in fact, often take it to bed with me and occasionally have to wipe a bit of drool away. And what book was it?
This book!
Yeah, maybe it's just me, but I love, love, love, looking at all of the textures and techniques over and over (though tracking down the proper diagrams to go with the instructions is a little difficult.) I'm a girl who loves color, so I'm sort of surprised that a book so full of monotones/neutrals excites me so, but it does. Which brings me to this. Again, gasp. I saw this book after looking at this blog and after a little frantic online searching, remembered that I work fairly close to a giant Japanese bookstore that would probably have it in stock.
And it did! So I had a little less cash and a little more happiness that day. The ISBN is 4579110714 if you don't work a few blocks away from such a bookstore.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I sat down and made some pillows using these elements as inspiration.
Some version of them may end up over here, if I can get my act together.

And I almost forgot, but this was also very inspiring.
Subtle, no?

Strange and True Indeed