Entries categorized as ‘Crafting’
Two years ago I knit Bryan this hat for snowboarding. It has felt pockets in the ears to slip his Burton headphones into (they’re on the larger size – around 2.5″ across), and an elkhorn button to hold the chin strap in place.
This weekend, I got a lot accomplished. Among my list of satisfying achievements was knitting Bryan a new snowboarding hat. I dragged him with to my new favorite yarn store, the Fiber Gallery up in Greenwood. As a reward for helping me pick out yarn for a baby sweater, I agreed to make him a new beanie for riding. He found two patterns and I helped him find the right weight yarn, so he’s actually getting TWO beanies out of me.
This is the first, and I worked on it most of Sunday. I’m getting faster at knitting! I also have the patience to sit around and knit the same thing in one long sitting (movie + Olympics + no TV). Hopefully, cranking out a couple of quick beanies will prepare me for a sweater from my Vintage Knits book. I am preparing to knit a hoodie that will fit a 12-18 mo-old.
Showing the neck closure
Showing the cables and alternate ribbing
The button for closing up the neck part is a piece of a dyed nut that I got at Fiber Gallery. I didn’t see what type of nut but I liked the texture around the colored part. The hat is actually knit deep enough that the earflaps came around to close almost on their own. I extended one of them about 1.5″ with a garter stitch, and other than that they are just earflaps stretched!
Showing the button detail on one of the earflaps
I did alter the pattern. It said to do a two-stitch cable in-between the C6′s and I thought that was too much twisting, so changed it to be just a k2 rib. OH! The first time I got about 3 rows in to the full loop and realized it was WAY too big. This was knit on a size 9 needle, and it called for a total of 120 stitches – it was going to be about 5″ too wide! So I reduced it down to 90 and it fits Bryan just fine. I remembered it being kinda big on the model in the shop, but couldn’t tell just how big it was until I got a few rows in.
Still have to get the felt pockets in the earflaps – that’s a must for Bryan, he’s gotta tune you out while riding (JUST KIDDING!). Really, the guy listens to music all.the.time while riding. So I have to dig out some soft fabric and get those in, and then this beanie’s all set for snowboarding in.
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: beanie, cables, fiber gallery seattle, hat, knit, knitting, pattern, snowboarding hat
Bryan likes to group things together to make this phrase: ______, everywhere!
This last weekend, we gathered at Allyson and Kelly’s house for a baby shower in honor of Steph and Casey. A joint shower: the girls would drink champagne, snack on cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chocolates, while the boys went on a pub crawl. It was a very fitting way to mark the approaching addition to their life.
Every baby shower I have been to has some sort of contribution/gift to the expecting mother. For Stephanie, sister-in-law Allyson and her co-hostesses had asked each person attending the shower to submit a photo that would be added to a book for the to-be child. It was such a fun way to share friends and family with a child through storytelling.
Here is ours. We wanted to add more color than just a photo, so here is our rendition of “under the sea with the Ripkas”.
Under the Sea: a baby shower gift
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: portland, baby shower, stephanie, scrapbooking, scrapbook, baby present, baby book, collage
Every year I like to make something for Christmas presents. It gets even better when I can make one thing multiple times and take care of many gifts.
I saw the pattern for these on the PurlBee blog and have been eyeing them for a while. They are such a simple project and having the measurements and instructions laid out made their construction a breeze.
Check out the instructions on the PurlBee. They say it takes two hour for four towels; I found that keeping the iron on while sewing made this possible.
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: sewing crafting dishtowels
Two days ago we hit up the West Seattle Farmer’s Market to pick up some of our regulars (pasta, juice, herbs) and also with the goal of buying enough tomatoes and pears for another round of canning. Tomatoes are a hard thing, because you need SO MANY of them to get a good amount of canning content produced. We picked up 11lbs. of hot houses ($$!) and 8 pears.
Upon arriving home from work this eve, I pulled those tomatoes and pears out of the fridge. Tomatoes went in the pot first because you have to boil them down for so long. Tonight they boiled down for nearly 2 hours after I first sent them through the blender for puree-ing. About a month ago I finally found this website that shows how to make tomato sauce without the need for peeling the tomatoes. I don’t have the patience for shocking the skins off tomatoes – sorry.
Pears in their salt bath, waiting to be boiled
So I had tomato sauce going on the stove already and I dove next into peeling and quartering the pears. Did you know you can keep pears in a solution of water and salt and they won’t brown? Well, you can, and I found that way more convenient than using ascorbic acid (vitamin C), because who really has powdered vitamin C on hand?
My goal with the pears was to use my new book In Season by Sarah Raven and make “Spiced Preserved Pears” along with a couple jars of regular ol’ canned pears. Both versions were very simple, the tricky part for me was balancing the timing of getting the tomato sauce to finish up and get in the cans at nearly the same time I needed to get the spiced pears and regular pears in their cans. The whole canning process isn’t a frenzy for me, it all comes together at the point before you get the cans filled and into the bath, and tonight was the most tricky. I had all four burners rolling at full boil and had to time pulling them off in order but not over-cooking any pots. Phew!
The finished result
Three hours later I have five quart jars to pull out of the water bath: two tomato sauce, two pears in sugary water, and one jar of spiced pears. So, yeah, the tomato sauce cost me around $18/jar. A little embarrassing and I know if I shopped better I could cut that price in half at least – for now I am content with knowing I can make quite a few spaghetti dinners that didn’t originate in California.
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: canning, kitchen
I finished off my first baby sweater last night. I am very pleased with the way it turned out, the sleeves are a good length and my stitches are even – the overall result was as expected. The only things bothering me were the way I put the hood together (it’s not very even) and the front bottom edge keeps curling up. Blocking should take care of that.
It would help to have a timer to help keep track of how long projects like this take me. I started it in April, but didn’t work on it consistently until done. Best guess would be 14 hours from start to finish?
First knit for baby: Anders Hoody
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: Crafting, hoodie, knit, knitting, project
Three things I like about today:
1. Bryan comes home.
2. Crisp apples from the Farmer’s Market.
3. My latest Cook’s magazine, which features tasty soups & stews.
Though the last one leaves me really wanting a Le Creuset french cooker. And we don’t have $240 lying around to fund it. Ah, well!
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: lists
January 11, 2009 · 1 Comment
During our vacation in Sayulita (photos here), I read a book called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. It was – and this might sound dramatic – revolutionary. It opened my eyes to just how much of a footprint our eating habits have stretched. We haven’t bought avocados or bananas or anything citrus to keep at home that wasn’t produced in the USA since we’ve been back. Which also means we haven’t bought avocados or bananas – they always come from at least Mexico, which is far outside our new goal: buy food that was produced within 500 miles from Seattle. Others that we’ve bought sparingly include tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini… we’ve been thrown into a crash-course in what it means to cook with winter produce like kale, collard greens, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and other root vegetables. It’s actually been quite tasty!
Yes we still buy olive oil and other things that we justify using. We decided to ween ourselves off the 500+mile range items slowly.
Though bread can be found here in Seattle and all over, having a bread maker was woven into this book I read. It’s not going to reduce our footprint by much – I can’t say for sure where my flour comes from, but it will cut down on food costs. We spend probably $40/mo on bread, between sandwich loaves and pizza crusts, hamburger buns and muffins, it all adds up.
Making bread is incredibly easy. And I don’t think our family & friends will complain when gifted with a fresh, tasty loaf.
Categories: Crafting
Tagged: baking, bread, kitchen
