The Drawstring Beret

Ever since I saw this hat in Eugenia Kim’s book, Saturday Night Hat, I had a strange fascination with wanting to make it. I thought it was kind of silly, so I made this one instead. But this weekend I came back to the book, and it still called to me. You see, last week it was so sunny and bright that I actually left the house and went on walks, and did not have to pseudo ice skate across slick sidewalks everywhere. So I thought I needed a little transitiony hat. Of course today it is snowing like crazy…but this weekend- ooh, the plans were in action.  

This hat works up really simply, and you only need half a yard of fabric to make it. I used an old sundress that if I’m honest with myself, I’m not going to be fitting into any time soon. I love the fabric though, hence the recycling.

Although the book has really well illustrated instructions, I found them confusing with both this hat and the previous one. The construction is not hard at all, and I don’t know if I just think differently or what, but after I got past the cutting step, I just winged it.

In trying this hat on in the myriad of suggested ways, I found the best use so far: bandana substitute. I can loosen the drawstring, pull it down to my neck, get all of my hair in the hat on the way back up, and tie it shut. This way my hair stays out of my face during my looking-down tasks– which means I won’t have to wipe my hair back with a clay soaked hand anymore. Therefore I can skip getting on the bus with what looks like mud all over the side of my head. Spattered pants are acceptable, I think, but mysterious substance on glasses frames and cheek= not so much. I’m going to test it out this week.

Till then, I’ll just wear it around the house and pretend I am a cupcake or something. I could see myself making more of these.

Little Surprises

I met my friend for coffee this morning to give her this hat, a custom job she requested for her 2-year-old granddaughter. To be honest this hat was a bit of a pest, I must have ripped it out three times. Something about the nubby yarn (it’s easy to loose your stitches) and my intent focus on making it a certain circumference. I don’t really have a pattern for hats, and I make each one  according to what the yarn tells me (hah!), and this one finally said “start at the bottom!”.

I’ve begun to add lining bands to my hats. Of course that’s another step and another material and more time, so I had resisted doing it for a long time. But then the shop I sell at said that a lot of people had mentioned that they were sensitive to wool, so I decided it was worth a shot to see if it helped sales. I sold three out of four newly lined hats to my coworkers before they even made it to the shop. Question answered.

Now I love the lining bands, because they’re a little extra surprise inside that only the wearer knows about. Plus it’s always fun to pick out the fabric– the sweet giraffes on the inside of this hat are definitely my favorite part.

And if you’re worried, as I was, that it’s too late in the season for hats, don’t fret– I’ve been informed it’ll snow here  until June. The weather’s actually been really nice  and sunny lately. It is good to see grass again.

New Issue: Crochet Today

As promised, here it is: my blatantly self promotional post. Just to prove I’ve been working on some worky type things. Here are two little projects of mine from the new March/April issue of Crochet Today.

    

The crafty cuffs and spiral change purse are mine. They’re fun and quick, let me tell you. I think I started these shortly after I moved here– I was still trying to get my head on straight at the time. 

   

This issue has some really pretty home projects. This vintage runner redux is totally my speed (love to crochet those lace patterns in a larger scale….even if I’m not a table runner kind of girl), and I looove the color wheel pillow. As in, one day, when I have time again, I might even make it. 

And did you know that Crochet Today also has podcasts? I vaguely remember the staff working on one while I was still around in NYC, but then I read about them on Crochet By Faye and had an “ooooooh….yeaaaaah” moment of recollection. I proceeded to dork out and watch every last one of them. I miss working with a bunch of fun ladies. Hi Brett and Sara!

I feel much better today. I was up and at ‘em this morning, then I rode the bus downtown for my pottery class. I’m pretty excited about some pieces I made from molds last week. They have doily imprints and are painted to look sort of like old pyrex casserole dishes. I only have 2 more weeks of the class…. and then I’ll be posting some results. I think I’ll go in tomorrow and take one last shot on the wheel. The wheel is so different from handbuilding- it’s all about relinquishing control for me. Sometimes I end up with something pretty, other times, a pile of mud. Good practice for life, I say.

Feast For One

I am all alone this week, as Paul is down in Texas for the College Art Association. Cue “All By Myself.” We went to the grocery store before he left (did I mention that I don’t really drive…yet…I hope) and I stocked up on some stuff I’ve missed eating. I finally gave in to the completely ridiculously priced frozen shrimp. We’re landlocked, people.Oh, and I had a glass of wine. It’s been a long time since that’s happened.

I turned the frozen shrimp into roasted lime sesame shrimp (thanks to a bottled marinade) then had some leftover v-day accoutrements. Holy crap, those oils and vinegars Paul bought are SO good. Completely fresh and delectable. I also seasoned some rice with one of the spice mixes for our dinner last night, heavenly! I really miss Indian food. And Asian food. And Mexican food. So let’s all cross our fingers that the next place we go will involve other cultures.  I keep meaning to make a return visit to New York, but it’s just too expensive.

I have been working on some crafty things, I promise. But some of them are gifts, one is a custom job, and lots of things are work-related. It’s feast or famine in this freelancey life, so right now I’m somewhere leaning towards feast. Since I can’t show you anything, let me share these darling dish towels I bought at the Winter Fest instead. They were so cute, and they were made by retired seniors, so how could I say no?  There were about six stacks of them at the display and I started looking through every one until I felt very self conscious and decided on these two lovelies.

Happy dishes.
I’m hoping to get a lot of work done this week, but today I just felt mopey and sad and missed Paul. Tomorrow will be better!

Winter Fest

Yesterday I convinced Paul to take me to Winter Fest, which had a kind of stock show/county fair vibe.  I was most interested in the quilts and the petting zoo (yay!).  The quilts were largely traditional, but there was one with some amazing feedsack fabrics. I didn’t take any pictures though, so you’ll have to imagine them.

The best part of the fest was seeing all of the animals. Check out these alpaca! They’re standing in a herd like that because apparently some dogs had just come by and scared them all. They made a collective low humming sound,  kind of like a creaking door.

There were more alpaca in the petting zoo, and in the Alpacas of Montana group (above), a 3 1/2 week old alpaca! You can read all about the alpaca here. Gee, at $12k an alpaca, I guess I might never own one!

We also saw these very wooly sheep. They are a very old breed, but the name escapes me.

And here are some piggly wigglies.

Lots more pics in my flickr, if you need a dose of cute.

Happy Love Day

Here I am, sliding in under the wire (let’s face it: just barely, since most of you are not on mountain time) with my V-day well wishes. I had such good intentions this year. I bought a pack of cards in January, kept reminding myself to send them, and….well, no, it didn’t happen.  I love the big declaration “I love you!” though, and I’ll just have to use the rest for general correspondence.

Paul and I actually exchanged gifts last night. I heard him rustling around (trying to set up the gift) when he got home from the studio so I got out of bed to see what was going on. He got me a lovely gift basket from a local shop called Oil & Vinegar. Olive oil, balsamic vinegars, and some egyptian rubs for meat. Oh how I do miss good food- I am just working on creating it myself here.  He described the process of going to th store and getting to taste everything– I wish I had been there! Plus I love that the bottles are refillable so there’s no waste involved. In addition to the basket,  he cooked me dinner and used some of the olive oil for bruschetta and pasta. Yum! It was really cute to see him cook dinner.

For him, I bought a handmade wooden Rube’s Cube Puzzle, which took him a good 20 minutes to figure out. I also gave him a little crocheted owl. It is Vowlentines day after all, and I wanted to tell him “Owl love you.” I am a bad punner, and he loves me anyway.

Hope you all had a lovely day.

Fits and Starts

Not much posting lately. I’ve been making stuff- just not necessarily stuff I can/feel like showing yet. I did finish the lining on my sewing bag, though.

It has a pocket for scissors, a pen, and whatever else. I took it to Bernina Club last week, where I made this heart potholder.

It was a good first time use of my walking foot (love!!) and a bias-tape refresher. I was by far the youngest person there, but I love being in a room full of people who love to sew.  Plus, I always pick up new tricks at classes. I just love how much time I have to actually take classes here. Plus, I get to take these classes for free for a year as it was included in the cost of the machine. Yay.

I actually have even more free time as of last week since my temporary job has ended. I have other projects to focus on, so it’s probably a good thing, but I do feel sad not having a reason to leave the house every morning. 

It is finally warming up around here (35! Break out the t-shirts!) and I can’t wait to get out and do some more walking. All told, his winter has been so, so, so much less hard than I thought it would be. It is lovely to be here with Paul, and the snow is completely beautiful, the sun shines, and it’s dry. I’m telling you, that makes a huge difference in actual cold-feel and the numbers on the thermometer don’t always tell the full story. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cold! But overall it doesn’t feel as brutal as a New York winter. There are other things I miss, but not the depressing bleak dark-at-4:30 days.

Sulu Swap

I recently did a swap with Susan of Su-lu Design after I looked all over town (i.e. in 2 beading shops and the craft stores)  for some large ear wires. We’ve never met in real life, but we both lived in Astoria and shopped at the same grocery store for who knows how long. Then I moved out west, and she moved out west, to the point that when we got to the podunk town of Kadoka, SD, I said “No, no, I want to stay at that motel!” which I recognized from her photos. It was good to know I was not alone.

Here are some of the goodies she sent me.

The fabric I used in the background is a hand screened piece by Lara Cameron. Gorgeous, gorgeous- just some of the other good mail I’ve received recently.

It was a fun little swap, and I’ve been wanting some of her earrings for a long time.  Sometimes I feel like making things to sell is just an elaborate form of barter, since I always end up using my paypal money to buy more handmade stuff.

Banana Nut Bread

I’ve had a serious hankering to bake lately, probably due to everyone’s lovely blog posts ….and maybe also to temperatures in the tens. This weekend I made some yummy banana nut bread from my mom’s recipe.

In addition to my two bread pans, I scooped some batter into these heart shaped foil tins so I could give individual portions to some friends. You can find them near the cupcake wrappers at the grocery store.

 

If you’re ever baking a cake that you won’t get to eat until the specific occasion, fill one of  these shapes, or even a cupcake wrapper, and  you can make yourself a cupcake! That way you can taste the cake beforehand…you know, to make sure it’s okay. Wink, wink. No one will notice that your cake is one cupcake short of batter. My sister Ann taught me that!

Banana Cake

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 -3 very ripe bananas (you can always freeze your gross brown bananas and use them for this. be sure to peel them before freezing)
1/2 c. sour cream or yogurt
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped pecans (more or less)

Cream the butter and sugar together. You should taste it at this point, because butter+ sugar= best tasting thing ever. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time. Add bananas and sour cream. Sift remaining ingredients together (if you don’t have a sifter, just be sure to stir really well) and add to the mix. Once the batter is well stirred, add the pecans (if using).

Now, my recipie says to pour it into a buttered and floured (very important- it will stick!) 9″ tube pan. I have no idea what that is, so I use one 4 x 8 ish bread pan and one that’s slightly smaller. Bake at 350 until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes, then turn out on a cooling rack.

It’s delicious, I promise!

And the winners are…

According to the random number generator, the winners of my giveaway are Liz Elayne (who picked a cake hat) and Jenny Harada (who gets to pick a necklace- I’m emailing you now!). Thanks for playing everyone. I’ll be back later today with some banana nut bread from the weekend.