Craft Fair!

We're at not one but two craft fairs this weekend! Come see us in Santa Cruz at the Monarch Fair at the Civic Center or the Ribbon Street Fair at the Freight Building!

K11 Craft Sale Recap

The Craft Sale at Knit-One-One in Berkeley this past weekend was a success. We had a great spot outside the studio across from Bag It Designs who we met at the Louden Nelson Winter Fair in Santa Cruz last year.

I debuted my single-ply worsted weight hand spuns and they were well recieved. I sold a couple hanks to the lovely owner of Bubbles and Boo who plans to use them in her product photos before knitting something beautiful for herself. I’m pleased they turned out so well, and I think I’ll be doing many more of them in the future.

During the sale, I set up my spinning wheel and answered questions from dozens of curious folks about the mechanics of the spinning wheel. Many were most surprised to find out that my wheel was not antique at all, and that the company that produced mine is still doing so. Though spinning yarn is a craft associated with times of yore(Remember sleeping beauty?), the skill has been passed through families and friends and has grown so much in popularity that many yarn shops now also sell spinning fiber and some even host classes.

Though sales were not as high as we’d hoped, we did meet a lot of lovely local crafters, Hedgerose got commission work, and I discussed the possibility of teaching a drop-spindle workshop at Knit-One-One in the future. While a spinning wheel is a major investment, costing anywhere between $300 and $700, drop spindles sell for closer to $15 and are a great way to start learning without having to make a huge dent in your savings. In fact, that’s exactly where I started in 2007, and since I was given a wheel by my aunt, I spend much of my free time at home consumed by this hobby.

I’m still dreaming about someday making it a full time job. For now, occasional fairs will do just fine.

*This entry cross-posted from peculiarpurls.com

K11 Craft Fair

We have been included in the Knit one one craft fair. It is the day before Mother's Day in Berkeley.
The fair is from 10-4 at 3360 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA 94703. There is a lot of free parking and it is close to the Ashby BART. Here is a link to the official website: http://knitoneone.blogspot.com/

We look forward to seeing you there! If there is anything you would like to see there, please let us know!

Steam Punk Convention

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the steampunk convention in San Jose. It was amazing! it was my first convention and what a way to start! I was amazed by how great everyone's costumes were and how all the vendors had such amazing and creative items. There was even a tikki Daleck! Miss Kalendar's tea room was beautifully done and a haven to retreat into. I definitely want to go next year and plan ahead so that I too can have a good costume!

Sweet Pickled Pearl Onions

A few weeks ago I learned to pickle quail eggs from Kitty Sharkey of Havenscourt Homestead. They turned out so well that I thought I might just try to put together something of my own.

I developed a delicious recipe for sweet pickled pearl onions which go well in salad or as a zesty side to sandwiches, burgers and barbecue. Best of all, they are super easy to make and I’ll tell you how!

Peel and trim 2-3 cups of red pearl onions. White pearl onions will work too but won’t be quite as sweet. Though I haven’t tried it, you could also coarsely chop 2 large onions. In a bowl, cover the peeled onions with boiling water and let them sit for 5 minutes. Drain them and fill the onions into a jar or two.

In a non-reactive saucepan combine the following ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

• 1 c. white vinegar
• 1/2 c. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 tsp. kosher or pickling salt
• 1 cracked bay leaf
• 2-3 large cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 tsp. cracked pepper corns
• 1/2 tsp. ground clove
• 1/2 tsp. celery seed
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Pour the brine over your filled jar(s) of onions without filtering out any of the spices and allow them to soak up flavor for at least 5 days before serving. They will keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 month.

If you would like to keep these for longer follow proper canning process as recommended by a reputable agency(USDA, FDA, National Center for Home Food Preservation, etc.) once you’ve filled the jars. If they are canned, they ought to keep for months and months.

Now, I’m going to go enjoy some of those onions!

*This entry cross-posted from peculiarpurls.com

Real Winter and International Yarn

I've been back for a month and am finally starting to settle back in.

Germany was a perfect winter wonderland. The photo above was taken in full color! Celebrating a real white Christmas was truly special.

I managed to finish all 8 gift projects I had going the night before Christmas and they were splendidly received. Everyone was thrilled and impressed! My aunt, and trip benefactor, even nabbed her husband's scarf within the week and pulled the "communal property card" when I raised my eyebrow at her.

Understandably, I've been pretty burnt out on knitting since then, but I did start creating a pattern with some gorgeous hand-painted yarn that I picked up at a wonderful shop in Berlin. Fadeninsel was located just around the corner from the apartment Boy and I stayed in for 5 days. It is a wonderful little shop which emphasizes handcrafted yarns and local products like Opal yarn which I brought back for Riastiltskein.

Now that I'm home, I've gotten back into several new hobbies. I'll share tales and photos as soon as the projects are underway or complete.

Ron Yarn!

Freya went to Germany for forever (ok, about 2 months, but still). She came back recently and is getting settled back and unpacking. She came up to me and said that she had gotten something for me in Germany, while grinning menacingly , which was worrisome, and then she pulled out this! It is Germany Harry Potter yarn! With Ron on it! He is my favorite, absolutely. And it even says Harry Potter und der Halbblut-Prinz! Awesome!

Pattern: Wildhood Cowl

It is pattern time!

Earlier this winter, I did a lot of shawls. Like, a LOT of shawls. I had shawls coming out my ears. I think I knit five slightly different versions of the Swallowtail shawl.

When that was all said and done, I decided I wanted to knit something radically different. So, naturally, I decided on something for relatively the same part of the body, knit with similar yarn on similar needles.

Having looked through the cowl patterns on Ravelry and on Knitty, and not being able to find one I liked, I decided to make up my own pattern. I wanted something slightly lacy, but with enough body that it would keep my ears warm. This is what I came up with!

Unnamed Cowl (seriously, does anyone want to name this for me?)

ETA: WILDHOOD COWL! (Thanks, Naomi. It is perfect!)

Yarn: less than one skein Malabrigo lace. You could, I suppose, knit this longer and use an entire skein.

Needles/notions: I used 24" circulars in size 6 (4.0 mm.); it was a bit of a stretch at times. You could use shorter needles or DPNs easily. You will want a yarn needle or crochet hook to weave in the ends.

k2tog: knit two stitches together
kfb: knit through the front and back of a stitch.

CO 120 stitches loosely. Join, being careful not to twist.

Rows 1: Place marker at the beginning of the row, then k all
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 4: [yo, k2tog] to end of row
Rows 5-9: k all
Row 10: [k2tog, yo] to end of row
Rows 11-15: k all

Repeat rows 4-15 until the cowl is as long as you would like it to be; mine is around 15 inches. Stop at the end of row 13.

Edging:

Row 1: [k2, kfb] to end of row. You should now have 150 sts.
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 5: [yo, k2tog] to end of row.
Rows 6-10: k all.

To bind off: I used the elastic cast-off found at the end of the Swallowtail shawl pattern; make sure to cast off loosely.

This is long enough to be worn as a hood or as an abbreviated scarf-thing. It's much warmer than it looks! Enjoy, and please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern or have any questions!

(I have mostly been blogging over here of late; I promise I'll do more knitting/spinning posts soon!!)

Annis Part 2

I have casted on (successfully finally) and knit much of the Annis shawl. I am liking it once I finally got over the first few rows. I am knitting on larger needles with fingering weight wool instead of lace. I also cut out 10 repeats, so it wasn't insanely large. There is a user on Ravelry that listed the solution to the short rows with a different number of stitches. I don't want to link without permission, but I found it by searching Annis and then searching helpful notes. I am really loving the short rows. I may have to cast on another shortly. I see why Sarah has become addicted to the shawls.

Annis Shawl

I casted on, knit a few rows, ripped out this shawl so many times over a week and a half, that I think I have gone a bit crazy. I tried to do the pattern as written. I sized up to a bigger needle and bigger yarn. I cut repeats. I managed to get about 5 or 6 rows in and had to rip it all out because of mistakes that were too large to gloss over.The last time that I pulled it out and cast back on, after hearing the frustration as I realized I would have to pull it all out again, Warebeast borrowed it and hid it. Not very well, I found it the next day, but still, maybe I ought to let this one go for now.

I whistle a happy tune...

I am in my first year of teaching in a Montessori classroom. I love the methods, I love the theory, I love the kids. I am struggling, as all first year teachers do. I have read account after account of similar struggles. I have read several books detailing what to do. I have the luxury of a head teacher who is extremely experienced and willing to explain why we do what we do.

Some days are wonderful! The kids show me a new way of looking at life and the world around me. They say funny things and do strange things or just run up out of the blue and give you a hug. I love teaching and would never dream of anything else. Some days are terrible. No one listens, my voice starts to get horse, I get sneezed on, step in puddles in the bathroom in my socks. I ask myself why it is that I started this and remember how untrained I am and that I have no applicable skills.

The weekends are either spent recovering and catching up on all the chores I have left unfinished throughout the week or trying to make up for lost time and catch up with friends that I have ended up seeing less of then I would like.

Some time I wonder if I will ever feel like a real teacher. My head teacher, in giving me advice on effective discipline, told me that it has to come from inside, you have to feel it before the kids will listen and that no one else can help me. My father, a high school teacher, told me to remember that I am the teacher. I think that the kids can tell when I am feeling unsure of myself and run with it.

I was talking to a close friend who is much older than I am and I asked her if you ever really feel like an adult. She started to answer, hemmed and hawed a little bit, but the final answer was no, you get more mature and see that you were a stupid young person, but you never really feel any different. Which is comforting on some level and disheartening on another. I wanted to know that it would all solidify at some point and I would feel "grown up" and like a "real teacher" and I know that at some point, like getting old, I will start to mature and feel more sure of myself, but as my lead teacher pointed out, it won't come from a manuel or advice. While they are helpful, eventually, it all works out ok.

Om nom nom!

I went over to Sarah's (Hedgerose) house and crafted and ate. That woman is an amazing cook. She has a food blog at http://rosemaryandroux.blogspot.com/ She made me risotto. I chose not to eat many meats, but I do still eat seafood. She made scallop risotto with a crab broth that was amazing!

I spun some on the fleece from my uncle. I am liking the way it is spinning up. It is a shorter staple than I'm used to, in large part because these sheep were raised for meat. However, I really like the light gray color that it spins up to be and I love that it is from my uncle. It is going very slowly. I broke the belt on the drum carder and haven't gotten a new one yet. I also haven't been spinning as much as normally lately. I got a little burnt out over December.

What a whirlwind holiday season it was! After the craft faire in Santa Cruz I began the Christmas Knitting. Now Sinspinner was much smarter than I and had started much sooner. She however was going to Germany to see family and therefore had much more than I. I started the socks that Warebeast's mother had commissoned on December 5th and believed that I could knit 5 pairs of socks, 2 hats, a bag, a lace scarf and still keep my job and sanity. This was not the case. I caved on the 23rd and went to Target.

Sinspinner in Germany with the Boy until the 24th, which makes the apartment and the cats very lonely. I hope that everyone's holidays were lovely!

~Riastiltskin

Holiday Show

We will be appearing at the Multi-Artist Holiday show in Santa Cruz this weekend, December 4th and 5th, 2010. Join us from 11-5 at the Freight Building, 119 Center Street! http://www.ribbonstreet.com/holidayshow.html

Monarch Craft Fair

We went to the Monarch Community Craft Show yesterday. It was really nice. We went last year and there were a lot of the same wonderful venders there this year. We were actually even invited to be in a craft fair in Santa Cruz next weekend! I have to get the exact date from Hedgerose before I post the information though. We met a lot of really nice people.

A woman came by our booth and told us that her husband had bought on of Hedgerose's books last year and given it to her for Christmas. She took it with her to Italy and back and now it is her traveling journal. We were thrilled to here that our creations had gone so far and were being loved.

Like all craft fairs it seems, this one was a bit of an adventure to get to. (Hedgerose can smack me for that proposition at the end of that sentence later.) I had gone down to L.A. to see my family for Thanksgiving, so had just gotten off of a plane. Elderbeast (brother of Warebeast), had volunteered to come get me from the airport and drove me down to Santa Cruz, saving me a bazillon hours on the bus. O.k. like 2 or 3, but still a huge difference. However, Hedgerose and her housemates win. One of their housemates fainted in the kitchen and they had to call 911. The upside to this however is that they assure me that the fireman was extremely hot; every cloud has a silver lining. All in all, however, it was a very enjoyable day. Details about next weekend's craft show to come shortly.

~Riastiltskin

Corn Chowder!

I've been sick for several weeks and have eaten a LOT of soup. Today I made a big batch of delicious corn chowder. Try my original recipe!

Servings: 4-8

Cook Time: 1.5-2hrs

INGREDIENTS

1 large yellow onion, minced

1 large carrot, chopped small

2 medium leeks, chopped

2 stalks celery, minced

4 yukon potatos, cubed small

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sliced mushroom

1 can sweet yellow corn, undrained

2 quarts, chicken or veggie stock

1 cup half and half

1/2 cup white wine

3 tablespoons butter

ground black pepper and salt to taste

1 teaspoon paprika

shredded cheddar, sour cream, and/or chopped chives for topping

INSTRUCTIONS

Slowly sautee onion, garlic, leek, celery, mushroom and carrots in butter until onion and leek are soft and golden. Add corn, potato, stock and wine. Simmer on low heat for 45-90 minutes, stirring occasionally. Potatoes should be soft and falling apart. In a blender or with a hand blender, smooth 1/2 of the contents of your pot. Add in half and half, paprika, salt and pepper. Continue to Simmer on low heat 15 minutes then serve in deep bowls. Top soup with sour cream and shredded cheese.

Laci's

Now that I am not waiting tables and only teaching at Montessori school, I am experiencing this beautiful thing known as weekends. They are in fact amazing. I also have these things called evenings too, but that is another story. These weekends are giving me a chance to see my friends again. I went over to Oaklandia to visit a friend and she popped my Laci's cherry. An explanation for those of you who have not experienced that which is Laci's: it is a museum of lace and textiles. The front part of the building is a store. There are shelves of books, separated by subject. There were crafts I had never even heard of before. There were hat forms and parasols, hoop skirts, fans, tools, wig making. It was amazing. After you get through the front, there is another 2 rooms that is just the museum part. There were wedding dresses and veils in the first room and an exhibit on embroidery in the second. My friend is an embroiderer. I dabbled in it in high school, counted cross stitch, but she is the real deal. It was amazing to go through it with her and her input about the various techniques. I would definitely go back. I love museums and seeing the evolution of crafting but it was a different take to know that people had done this hundreds of years ago and were still using the same techniques today.

Going to Laci's made me think about the the nature of crafting. Most things there were fairly recent, within the last few hundred years, and many of the fabrics were falling apart. The intricacy and size of the stitches and patterns indicated that the artist had spent hundreds of hours creating each piece for something that would would only last a finite amount of time. I also thought that it was interesting that none of the pieces I saw seemed to be made with the intention of being in a museum one day. It was all something functional: a piece of clothing, a sampler, etc. It makes me wonder what we have lost, what was see as something frivolous and meaningless because it was being created by a woman. Not seen as art but as something less. I wish I had more answers. It was a thought provoking weekend.

I was all proud of myself for making a sock for the Warebeast. I made excellent time on it. It was a nice yarn. He loved the pattern. He tried it on. It was the biggest sock I have ever seen. I must have been in some kind of denial while making it. There was no amount of squinting or tucking that could make it work. I kept telling myself that the cables would make it gather more, that I needed the extra inches. After a night of mourning, I pulled out the sock all the way back to the foot. I kept telling myself that I knit for the process, that this is ok, but I had some choice words to share with myself.

An Evening at Havenscourt Homestead and Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, the Boy and I spent a LOVELY evening in Oakland at the Havenscourt Homestead where we learned to milk goats, collected eggs and spent an evening of leisure around the fire pit listening to the goats bleat, quail coo, chickens cluck and the occasional distant siren-- the sounds of urban farm life.

Kitty Sharkey started work on her homestead about 2 years ago and has an impressive back yard farm in high production now. With four Goats, twelve hens, four quail two hives, two cats, two oscars and a couple dozen pond fish, you'd think her place would be crowded but I was very impressed with how well she had used her space. Between two goats, she milks just over half a gallon every evening and collects a handful each of quail and chicken eggs daily as well. She swears her gardens are a mess but I look at them and am in awe of the tomato harvest she filled her fridge with. She's looking forward to a time when her organic farming practices will bring her up to 75% self sufficiency. It is an ambitious goal, but certainly one worth working towards.

Aside from her day to day farming practice, Kitty is working with her goats to train them as therapy animals. Sammy, her young wether (castrated male goat) is often the favorite of visitors as he is small, friendly and has an extraordinarily soft coat for his breed. Many of the neighborhood children have been invited into the yard to meet "the kids", as Kitty affectionately calls her little herd and she will be bringing them to the Norther California Renaissance Faire's brand new petting zoo starting this upcoming weekend (September 18th and 19th).

Speaking of which, The Ren Faire has 2 for 1 tickets THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Come see the court, stay for a show (or three) and cool down with a pint while you browse he marketplace. Stand aside when you hear drums and fanfare because the Queen is coming! Boy and I are at the head of the parade as part of the St. Blaise Town Criers followed by drummers, revelers and the Yeomen of the Guard. See you there!


Homestead photos are property of Kitty Sharkey and Havenscourt Homestead.

NCRF Promotional photo is property of Play Faire Productions.

A return to spinning

For the first time since the Napa craft fair, I have actually felt like spinning. My great uncle has a farm and gave me a huge bag of wool last month. They have three sheep and this was the fleece from one. I was so incredibly thrilled to get it, as you can imagine! My grandmother was less than thrilled. It had been sitting in her garage for a few weeks, until I could get down to pick it up. Warebeast and I went down for a friend's wedding and stopped to visit and woolgather. After my grandma fed him as much as she could, Warebeast had to stuff this trash bag full of raw wool into our trunk and we drove 6 hours back home. I've been giving the wool a daily bath, a third at a time. The first third is clean and carded, which is a story in itself. A story involving my non spinning friend fixing my drum carder, which cut the prep time into a fraction of what it was.

I have the whole house to myself this week. Freya, the Boy, and Warebeast all being at BurningMan. I had a pajama day, my own private craft day, and after knitting most of the day, looked back at the bag of batts that had been staring at me for most of the day, and spun two batts. I am loving the way it is spinning up and am glad to have the urge to spin after that intense prep work for the Napa show.