i like to knit

this blog is closed

2007-11-06T12:01:00.001-05:00

i'm no longer updating this knitting blog. instead you can find my very sporadic knitting adventures at my new blog, life off balance.

if you are only interested in knitting, select the "crafts" category from the archives page to view only my posts about knitting and other craftiness.

apron

2007-03-25T19:56:00.000-05:00

i made travis an apron today. he asked for an apron for his birthday (2/24) and i just got around to sewing it now. i got the fabric from the thrift store, i think it was an old futon cover or something. i made up the pattern myself, designed especially to fit travis.

i have to say, this is by far the best thing i've ever made. it's really good. almost perfect. i'm too surprised that i can sew things to bother to be modest about it!

technorati tags: sewing apron

soft trees

2006-12-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

i made these using glittery felt, and old unwanted shirt for the bottoms, and little bird's pattern.

i didn't do a very good job adjusting the pattern to make the taller, skinnier one, but you can't really tell when it's on the mantle.

yay for christmas trees!

technorati tags: crafty sewing christmas tree

shopping bag set

2006-12-21T21:38:00.001-05:00

i'm ready for christmas!

i finished the shopping bag set! i'm pretty happy with the way it came out. the first picture shows all the components of the set and the second picture is the bags tucked inside their stuff sack. note the little pocket with a pad for a shopping list.

this only cost a few dollars to make. the fabric is from three old sheets i got at the thrift store. other than that i only spent a couple of dollars total on thread, the pad of paper, and the black elastic cord and plastic dohickey for the drawstring.

after i wrap this last gift i'm 100% ready for christmas! woo hoo! i may even make those stuffed trees after all. i found really cool felt at the fabric store to make them with. it's green felt with glitter.

or maybe not. maybe i'll just go enjoy our new xbox and relax until christmas. i hope everyone has a merry christmas, happy hanukah and a very wonderful and creative new year!

technorati tags: crafty recycled shopping bag gift

christmas crafts

2006-12-17T18:21:00.000-05:00

here are some of the catnip cat treats i made. i'm giving them to all the cats i know.

i'm feeling less stressed. travis and i put up the christmas decorations last week. all my christmas cards are written, all my shopping is done, and most of my presents are wrapped. i made a great mix cd of my favorite christmas songs and made several copies with jewel case inserts to give out. all i have left to do is finish the reusable grocery bags for travis' sister and wrap the set.

i decided that the stuffed trees can wait until next year. it looks plenty christmasy in here in the meantime.

here's the playlist for "jen's super duper christmas mix" in case you want to put it together yourself. it's really good, if i do say so myself. (make sure you keep the songs in this order.)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year / Andy Williams
(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays / Perry Como
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Jackson 5
Jingle Bell Rock / Neil Diamond
I'll Be Home for Christmas / Carpenters
Winter Wonderland / Aimee Mann
We Three Kings / Dolly Parton
Christmas Canon / Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas / Sarah McLachlan
Sleigh Ride / Ella Fitzgerald
Baby, It's Cold Outside / Dean Martin & Martina McBride
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing / Amy Grant
Auld Lang Syne/ The Pipes And Drums Of The Queen's Own High

technorati tags: christmas crafty catnip

local knitting celebrity

2006-12-12T15:54:00.000-05:00

i was mentioned in a front page article in the gazette, a weekly local paper! this is the part about me:

And as part of a practice Anderson calls "so Takoma Park," even those worried about shearing sheep or reeling fibers from silkworms have outlets at their disposal. Jen M., a Takoma Park resident and longtime vegan, said the hats and scarves she’s made from less expensive acrylics still make her friends and family "ooh and ah."

"I like that you end up finding these environmentally sound, less wasteful solutions to things," said [me], whose favorite fibers are lion jiffy acrylics and recycled vegan silk yarn, of which she recently knit a bag for a Compassion Over Killing-sponsored auction.

stress!

2006-12-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

all of a sudden i want to make a million things for christmas and now i'm totally stressed out about when i'm going to do all of this.

i started the grocery bag set i'm making trav's older sister for christmas. it will be three tote bags and a drawstring stuff sack to keep them in (so you can toss the whole set in the car when you go to the store). it's mostly all cut. then i had to clean and oil the machine. now i've finally started sewing. i keep making more work for myself though - now i've decided to add a pocket to the outer stuff sack for holding a grocery list. i might have to figure out how to sew a button hole - i've never done that. i don't even know if my sewing machine does that. (advice anyone?) and to make matters worse, i'm figuring out all this sewing stuff as i go along. after cutting everything out, i just realized that i should have made a pattern to trace rather than measure everything out. duh. i hope the tote bags don't come out looking like a three year old made them.

so let's see, i also decided to make catnip cat toys for all the cats i know. i was going to make plain "stick" shaped toys, which would have been really quick and easy to make, but now i'm thinking about making them candy cane-shaped. again, more work for myself. and now i want to make some stuffed trees like vania's because i don't think we have enough christmas decorations. except i want to put tiny pom poms on mine as decorations, but i have to go buy them first. speaking of which, that's another thing i have to do -- put up the christmas decorations. travis put up the lights on the porch, but i still have to put up our little fake tree. oh yeah, but first i have to make a tree skirt. ugh! i was just at the fabric store yesterday, but i forgot about the tree skirt, so i need to go back unless i can scrounge up something in the house. but i have to get those tiny pom poms anyway.

i also have to get a gift for my hairdresser, wrap presents, and help travis write the christmas cards. i delegated making the cards and getting a present for the letter carrier to travis.

next year i have to actually plan for christmas early so that i don't get so stressed like this again. i'm always in denial that i'm going to do stuff for christmas so then i end up all discombobulated when christmas is approaching and i'm scrambling around to get things done when i realize all the stuff i actually want to do. but it would have been so much easier to plan it all out ahead of time and actually go to the fabric store with a list of ALL the fabric i need rather than make two trips, come up with actual patterns for things i want to make rather than measure out twelve of the same thing, and so on.

technorati tags: christmas

finished bag

2006-12-03T12:30:00.000-05:00

i finished the bag for the auction, as you can see. i found an emerald green placemat at the thrift store (2 for 95 cents) to use for the lining. everything used in the bag is recycled or reclaimed, except the bamboo handles.

the auction is next saturday, we'll see how much it goes for...

technorati tags: knitting recycled handbag

so much to do!

2006-11-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

i still have to finish the bag for the auction. i decided not to use the tee shirt for the lining, too stretchy. i'm going to get some fabric from the thrift store so it will still be all recycled. i found a little asian-style metal charm that came as a tag on a yoga shirt i bought that i will use for the charm. all of that has to get done this weekend because the party and auction is next saturday.

then, contrary to my declaration (on vania's blog) that i would not be making any gifts this christmas, i need to get working on a christmas present for trav's sister. every year we pick one name out of a hat for the gift exchange, saving us from having to buy a gift for everyone in the family. last year i got travis' cousin, and after much drama ended up knitting her a matching hat and keyhole scarf. this year, i got travis' older sister. i tried and tried to think of something to buy her but i couldn't think of anything that i wouldn't be buying just for the sake of buying. so i decided to sew her a set of grocery totes to reduce the number of plastic and paper bags she has to use. i'm going to make three totes and a pouch to keep them in, all out of thrift store fabric. i came up with an easy (and hopefully strong and durable) pattern, now i have to go find the fabric and get sewing. fortunately, i've already done the rest of my christmas shopping.

when i finish all of that, i'll worry about the gift for my yoga instructor.

technorati tags: christmas gifts sewing tote bags

present for my yoga teacher?

2006-11-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

i think i'm going to make her a tote bag. i figure if she wants a yoga mat bag, she probably already has one. yesterday in class she was using a canvas bag from whole foods to carry her notebook and stuff. i thought a tote bag is something that everyone can use.

i'm trying to decide if i should knit it or sew it. i'm leaning towards knitting (with a fabric lining) because i think with my skills it will come out better, and i also prefer knitting. but i'm not sure which she'd prefer. suggestions?

enjoying a handknit hat

2006-11-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

noah (star of liza was here) seems to like the umbilical cord hat i knit for him.

technorati tags: cute baby hat

finished the bag for cok

2006-11-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

it knit up very fast. i just have to do the seam, lining, and sew on the handles. i haven't decided whether i'm going to put on a little charm like i did on the last one. maybe i'll peruse the bead store and see if anything looks good.

i think my next project will be a yoga mat bag for my yoga teacher. she's leaving soon to move to santa monica and i want to give her a going-away present.

a knitting post!

2006-11-05T11:27:00.000-05:00

fall has officially begun: i started knitting again! and not only knitting, but knitting in style with my first pair of addi turbos...

my friend erica asked me to knit something to donate to the silent auction at the compassion over killing holiday party this year. so i finally had the motivation i needed to get off my butt and start knitting again. i decided to make another bag from stitch 'n bitch like the one i made for myself. it comes out really impressive-looking (if i do say so myself), particularly for the amount of work that goes into it.

the first thing i did was take an inventory of my yarn stash and my unfinished projects. i ripped apart the tank girl tank i had been working on. i'm just not into it any more. i decided that, to save time and money on the cok bag, i will knit it on size 13 circulars with a strand of recycled sari yarn and a strand of the plum reclaimed yarn (ripped from tank girl) held together. that should knit up really fast and be a lot less expensive than using just the recycled sari yarn. i knitted up a swatch and it looked great.

but my thriftiness was then thwarted, because i discovered that i needed a 24" size 13 needle and all i had was 16". i went to my lys and the only metal needles they sell are addi turbos. so i splurged. i had previously poo-poohed spending over $20 on a pair of knitting needles, figuring "how much better can they really be?" duh. they are SO much better. they weigh nothing and feel perfectly balanced in my hands. and the yarn glides over the slick metal more effortlessly than any other metal needles i've used. so now i'm addicted to very expensive knitting needles -- great. (i did refrain from buying anything from the very tempting sale yarn bin, though!)

but i'd rather splurge on knitting needles for myself than on yarn that's going to be auctioned off. and it actually looks really good with the plum recycled yarn. i think the bag will have a broader appeal this way, which is obviously good for an auction item.

so i had a great idea for the lining, i hope it works. i volunteer at cok twice a week, and one of the things i end up doing for them is folding the tee shirts that they get printed up with their designs and then sell. well, they got this defective batch of their "dog on a plate shirt" that they have to send back and i snatched one (with erica's permission). i'm going to try to make the bag lining out of the tee shirt. won't that be super cool and unique? i just hope it works because the tee is made out of that really stretchy "baby doll tee" material. it seems a lot harder to work with for a novice seamstress like myself. but i'll give it a shot. if it works, the entire bag will be made out of recycled materials: recycled rayon sari yarn, reclaimed cotton from a thrift store sweater, and re-purposed fabric from a defective tee shirt. cool huh?

technorati tags: knitting recycle yarn diy

renovated skirt

2006-05-07T13:34:00.000-05:00

i haven't been knitting at all, but i was somewhat crafty today. i bought this formerly ankle-length skirt at the thrift store yesterday, but it was too small. so i cut about a foot off the top and sewed a new waistband, creating a shorter but wider skirt.

for the tie, i used the tie from a pair of strawberry shortcake pyjama bottoms i bought during the same thrifting expedition. the pyjamas have a good elastic waistband and don't need the tie.

technorati tags: crafty skirt
thrift

hand knit sweaters for penguins!

2006-04-24T11:57:00.000-05:00

how badly do i wish i had a photo of this!

apparently do-gooder knitters make sweaters for rescued penguins in australia. i think it's great that knitters knit hats for cancer patients or afghans for afghans and contribute to all kinds of great causes, but oh my god knitting a sweater for a penguin is just too adorable.

maybe it's a good thing there aren't any pictures -- i feel woozy just thinking about the pure adorableness.

technorati tags: penguin knitting

pink is the new awesome

2006-04-20T19:21:00.000-05:00

ok, let's try this again and hope blogger doesn't eat this post too. for some reason, it appears that both blogger and george bush have something against unicorns!

anyhoo, i got a double treat yesterday when the unicorn pendant i ordered from rat girl goodies came in the mail and i discovered that krissy added these adorable stitch markers to my package! she's so sweet. i love them, and of course i love my unicorn pendant too. if pink is the new awesome, then pink + unicorn = super awesomeness.

speaking of awesomeness, tonight i'm having my second serving of the awesome vegan "macaroni hates cheese" (from the post punk kitchen) that trav made last night. i am officially declaring it to be the best vegan mac and cheese i've tasted. i'm so impressed with the recipe i think i'm going to make it for my book club potluck next week. oh, and the fact that it is really easy to make probably factors in somewhat. i just hope it tastes as good when i make it.

technorati tags: rat girl goodies stitch markers unicorn pink awesome post punk kitchen vegan blogger sucks

me me me

2006-04-15T17:30:00.001-05:00

vania tagged me to post 6 unusual or little known things about myself.

1. reading vania's post, i realized that i had no idea how many things she and i have in common. i wrote a comment to her about one such commonality and realized that i don't think most people online know this about me. so for my first "thing about myself" i'm plagarizing myself from my comment to vania:

like vania, it is also my greatest dream in life to learn to surf. when i say "i love surfing", i don't mean it like other people say "i love chocolate" -- i mean it like "i love surfing so much that the worst day surfing to me is better than the best day doing any other possible activity". i love surfing so much that one of the greatest moments i had in 2005 was the one and only time i ever caught a wave on my own. i love surfing so much that it hurts my heart to watch others surfing on tv or in the movies, because my opportunities to surf are relatively few, not living near the ocean. also, i am going to get a surfing-related tattoo in the next couple of months, a pin-up style surfer girl riding a wave on my right calf.

i know i've written about some of my adventures in skateboarding, but i don't think i've ever mentioned online that i started skateboarding largely as a replacement for not being able to surf. it didn't really work. i like skateboarding, but it doesn't fill my heart with joy the way surfing does. plus, like vania, i'm much more afraid of skateboarding than i am of surfing. travis, on the other hand, is more afraid of surfing than of skateboarding. (crazy boy must not realize that cement is a lot harder than water.) but for me, i just love the ocean and i feel so comfortable there. it's not that i am unaware of the dangers of surfing, or that i don't have a healthy level of respect and fear for the ocean. but i feel so at home in the ocean that my fear is a constructive and manageable sense of caution, as opposed to the panic and anxiety that i often feel on my skateboard. of course, it's self-perpetuating, because my anxiety on a skateboard makes it harder for me to skate and therefore makes me more likely to get injured. my experience trying to learn to drop in on a ramp last summer is a perfect example of that.

so anyway, that's the first thing about me that y'all might not know.

2. even before i discovered surfing, i've always loved the ocean. i miss it living here. i also love sailing, snorkeling, scuba-diving, and just sitting and watching the waves roll in for hours on end. i'm even not above motorboating, although i feel guilty about how bad it is for the environment.

one of the happiest moments of my life was a particular afternoon of sailing in cancun with my friend landon, who i had met there at club med. we took two sails on two different small sunfish-type boats. first we took a mellow sail on a boat that was stable and easy to sail. it was wonderful and peaceful and we just hung out being at one with the ocean. i remember feeling more contented than i had ever felt in my life. then, landon thought he was an expert enough sailor that we should take out a small racing boat that was designed for speed and manuverability. well, he wasn't quite as expert at it as he had claimed, and it was a wild ride. i thought we were going to crash into the reef or else i'd be pitched overboard as the boat heeled dramatically. i spent the whole sail simultaneously laughing my ass off and screaming in genuine fear for my life. i had never felt more alive and yes, stoked, in my life.

afterwards, we sat and drank beers and watched the sunset and rehashed the afternoon's events. the contrast between our two sails made it plain to me -- there are two kinds of joy to be had in life, and life is about finding and appreciating them both wherever and whenever you can. and that's what my life has been about ever since.

landon and i only spent a few days together in total, and now we've fallen out of touch. he changed my life in so many ways, and i can confidently say that i would not have the happiness i now have in my life if not for him. i am grateful to him for that. but most of all i will always remember him for that afternoon, which was the first time in my life when i can remember ever being so completely, deliriously, joyfully happy. but definitely not the last time.

3. when i was a child, i really wanted to be a fighter pilot. i used to get that same heart-hurty feeling when i'd watch top gun that i now get watching surfing movies. seriously. this weekend we watched an imax movie about fighter pilots and it reminded me of this childhood dream. i still understand why i was so drawn to it. in a different world, i would be a fighter pilot. that probably suprises people, because in this world i became such a pacifist. but the differences between this world and that alternate world are really not so large; it really comes down to the vagaries of history and politics. and of course, there is my little problem with authority. sure, in hollywood, having a problem with authority only makes you a better fighter pilot, see, e.g., starbuck on battlestar galactica or maverick from top gun, but i suspect that in reality the armed forces don't look quite so kindly on loose cannon types.

4. i'm an only child, and i've always been happy about it. i think being an only child helped foster many of my positive qualities and did not contribute significantly to my negative qualities. i think that only children face a surprising amount of prejudice (people assume that we are spoiled, don't get along with others, etc.) and are often misunderstood (people assume that we were lonely as children, that we wish we had siblings, etc.), and it upsets me when people spread stereotypes and myths about us. for instance, i have heard people say that they are determined to have at least two children because they think it's unfair to a child to let him be an only child, and they don't want their child to grow up to be a self-centered loner. even when people aren't this upfront about it, it's clear that there is a pervasive cultural bias against only children considering how uncommon it is. i can't fathom any logical reason why only children are as rare as they are.

both my parents were only children as well. i have never heard of any other family in which both parents and their child were all only children.

5. most people think i'm a lot nicer than i really am. a few people think i'm a lot meaner than i really am. in actuality, for the most part i'm too lazy to bother being nice or mean. basically, i am a self-centered loner. if i'm this way because i'm an only child, that's fine with me, because i like being a self-centered loner. contrary to the only child stereotype, however, i can get along with people just fine when i want to. obviously i'm not that bad at getting along with people, because hardly anyone ever believes me that i'm a self-centered loner. most of you reading this right now aren't believing it. so see, potential parents, i'm living proof: you aren't condemning your child to the lonely life of a hermit by not providing her with the civilizing influence of siblings.

6. travis and i wear matching rings on our left "ring" fingers. they are platinum and titanium bands and each one has an inscription on the inside written by the other person. i never take mine off and i never wear any other rings. this is the only marriage-related tradition (including marriage itself) that we have adopted. for me, the primary significance is having a sentimental momento of travis and our bond that i carry with me all the time. i don't like getting sentimental gifts like jewelry and i don't like a lot of sentimental stuff cluttering the house. i'd rather just have my simple ring and that's it. also, in my view, the fact that we wear matching rings is a symbol of our commitment.

i hadn't thought of this when we bought the rings, but since then i've come to hope that the ring has a secondary benefit of helping to ward off come-ons from strange men when i'm out with my friends. i don't personally subscribe to the traditional concept that i'm "taken" or any such thing, but i'm not above exploiting that traditional notion to avoid the "meet market." similarly, i often tell men that "i can't" accept drinks or flowers from them, because of my boyfriend. which is actually bullshit and completely goes against my true beliefs on relationships. but i don't have anything to prove about how enlightened i am; if saying "i'm taken" gets me back to dancing with my friends faster, i'm all for it. indeed, this is just one example of my general technique of "having a policy" as a method of dealing with uncomfortable social situations. but since i've already listed 6 things about myself, the theory behind my brilliant "having a policy" method will have to wait for another day.

technorati tags: surfing sailing fighter pilot top gun wedding bands only child hermit happiness stoked me

finally! finished curtains

2006-04-12T12:10:00.000-05:00

not like y'all don't already know, having already sneaked a peek of my photos on flickr.

anyway, here is our re-painted dining room with the curtains i made. (click on the photo for a better view.) it's my first attempt at curtains. i think you can see in the photo below that they have cute black cats on them. travis and i walked around the fabric store for a while and weren't really getting excited about anything, but then as soon as we saw this fabric, we both got really stoked about it.

i made the curtains with a white backing so that they'd be less translucent and also so that they'd look good from outside. as you can see, the outsides of the curtains are extremely visible from our side yard and from our neighbors' house. i bet the neighbors are glad we finally have curtains on this window -- it's been wide open for a couple of weeks now!

we ended up using a lighter shade of paint than we first considered, because we thought this shade would look better with the chairs and kitchen appliances, which are sort of a typical 70's avocado green.

the table and chair set was a gift from trav's parents. it has a built-in center leaf, which is extended in the picture because i needed the big surface for sewing. normally, we use it without the leaves. (the set also came with another chair, which we keep in the office unless we need it.)

technorati tags: dining room crafty curtains

thundercut in dc

2006-04-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

i've still got nothing to show for myself by way of craftiness. i only managed to make two of the four curtain panels so far. i thought about posting a picture of the two finished panels, but i figured i've already made everyone wait so long, i might as just wait until it's all done and bee-yoo-tee-ful to show the final result.

in the meantime, i thought i'd show everyone this cute little hitchhiker that has appeared on 14th street in DC. i was excited to see some cool new street art in town; my recent trip to NY left me jealous of the amazing street art they enjoy. turns out it's by thundercut, a couple of NY-based artists who are also the people behind sherbert magazine. apparently, they recently took a little road trip down to visit us in DC. thanks for visiting, thundercut!

thundercut is also well-known in NY for creative "remixing" of walk/don't walk signs.

technorati tags: thundercut street art

long time no see!

2006-04-05T15:34:00.000-05:00

the reason i haven't been posting here is because i haven't been crafty at all! i've done a few rows on tank girl and that's it.

i haven't posted a picture of the re-painted dining room because we decided on curtains, and i haven't made them yet. i'm going to make them double thick with a liner so they keep out more light and so they look better from the outside of the house. i think i'm going to start making them tonight. we bought the coolest fabric. i just hope i don't screw it up. so, hold on tight for pictures of our re-styled dining room coming soon!

not too much to report

2006-03-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

we painted the dining room last weekend and it looks good. we ended up going with the top color on that swatch, the lightest one. we are going to get wood blinds, so i'm going to wait until the blinds are up to post a picture.

still doing a few rows here and there on tank girl, mostly on the subway. that's about it for my craftiness.

tonight, i have to bake a cake for my bookclub meeting and potluck tomorrow evening. our food theme for this meeting is "eating on a budget" so everyone has to bring something that costs less than $5 to make. i'm going to bake a "wacky cake," which is a cake that traditionally has no eggs, butter, or milk, and is therefore unintendedly vegan. i believe the wacky cake was invented during WWI (and popular during the depression and WWII) to make do because supplies were scarce. the other thing of note about wacky cakes is that they are "dump cakes" -- you just dump all the ingredients into the baking pan, stir and bake. so that's perfect for me, since i hate washing dishes and baking. i got the recipe from trav's mom, but there are many wacky cake recipes on the internet.

if i can "afford" it, i will make a frosting recipe from How it All Vegan and frost the wacky cake. i have to calculate the cost -- i actually didn't have to buy any ingredients for the cake or the frosting, i had them all at home already. so i have a list of what i paid for the ingredients and now i have to do the math to figure out how much 2 cups of flour cost me, etc.

technorati tags: wacky cake baking

refurbished vintage lamp

2006-03-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

we found this lamp on the side of the street after one of our neighbors had left it out with their garbage. travis fixed it up and rewired it and now it's lovely.

i printed out a photo of it, and i was going to leave it at the house with a note that says "thanks" but maybe i shouldn't alert them to the hazards of throwing out nice stuff. if they stay in the dark, maybe we'll find another treat on the street in the future.

in response to emily's question, here is the lamp as it looks in our "dining room." i don't know what else to call it since our table is in there, but it's not really a separate room. the main floor of our house is pretty much open. i was standing in the kitchen when i took this picture.

see the paint chips on the wall? we are going to paint the "dining room" the color of the second one down from the top.

technorati tags: vintage lamp free refurbish

frenchy is cozy

2006-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

remember that pink pillow i sewed out of an old thrift store sweater? frenchy and her mom both love it. isn't this the cutest picture? now that's the kind of appreciation for one's work that all crafty folks dream of getting.

technorati tags: kitty pillow crafts

crafty necklace

2006-03-02T11:47:00.000-05:00

i haven't been very crafty the past couple of days, but i always look crafty with my new favorite necklace.

krissy made this and i've been wearing it all the time, so i wanted to show it off. but really this is the last picture of me. i'm so sick of looking at myself!

technorati tags: crafty

ahoy!

2006-02-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

i realized that if i had used vanilla like i was supposed to instead of orange extract on those crumbley cookies, they would have been just like chips ahoy! same texture, same taste. i used to love chips ahoy. now i want to make another batch with vanilla. i have to stop by whole foods tonight to get more chips.

if anyone else wants to make the vegan chips ahoy, the recipe was from one of sarah kramer's books (i think garden of vegan). i used a cup and a half of tropical source chocolate chips (my favorites) and i substituted whole wheat pastry flour for regular flour.

technorati tags: cookies

warm jiffy hat

2006-02-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

here is my warm jiffy hat, version 2.1. it's the same as the one i gave to marie. i'm a huge fan of the lion jiffy. it's warm and it does indeed knit up in a jiffy. i like its psuedo-wooliness. this hat cost about 70 cents to make.

i'm still working on tank girl. hopefully i'll get a lot done while watching the oscars on sunday.

technorati tags: hat knitting

birthday boy

2006-02-24T16:12:00.000-05:00

hey everyone, it's travis' birthday! pop over to his blog and wish him a happy one!

plus, he has some amazing photos posted from the musee mechanique.

technorati tags: birthday

new olympic event: tattoo/knitting cross

2006-02-21T21:16:00.000-05:00

travis had two tattoo sessions last weekend, one on friday and one on saturday. when marie started tattooing on friday, i sat down to knit and i decided that i'd start a hat and race her to see if i'd finish before the end of his session saturday. i won with about a half hour to spare! i made a stockinette hat with a 2x2 rib brim in fisherman (off-white) lion jiffy. my goal was to make an exceptionally warm hat and it worked. i really like the lion jiffy. it's a great cheap yarn. i used michelle's hat knitting tricks and they helped me get a great fit. thanks michelle!

i gave the hat to marie. she's such a sweet person, and a fabulous artist.

i didn't get a picture of the finished hat, but the photo above is her sister that i'm knitting for myself. i need to get more jiffy to finish it.

on the plane, i made some progress on tank girl, made with the recycled yarn.

tonight i'm home by myself and felt like making some cookies. i didn't have any vanilla, so i substituted natural orange extract and made orange chocolate chip cookies (vegan, of course). they are crumbley but they taste yummy.

technorati tags: tattoo lion jiffy knitting cookies

getting ready to go to san francisco

2006-02-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

we are going to san francisco on thursday for a long weekend. trav is going to get more work on his tattoo on friday and saturday. i promised to sit with him this time, so i am going to bring a lot of knitting to keep me occupied during 12 or 14 hours of tattooing.

i'm getting my projects ready tonight. i'm going to start a hat with off-white ("fisherman") lion jiffy on a size 8 circular needle, in stockinette with a fold-over 2x2 rib brim. i'm going to use michelle's hat knitting tricks.

also, i'm going to make "tank girl" from stitch 'n bitch with recycled yarn from the thrift store plum cardigan. i'm going to make the front and back at the same time on my size 10 36" circular needle. i saw that tip in stitch 'n bitch nation - this way both pieces will be exactly the same length.

now that i have my knitting ready, i'm excited for our trip. in addition to travis getting ink, we are going to celebrate valentine's day and our fifth anniversary with a dinner and champagne at millennium on saturday night.

jayne's hat

2006-02-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

i don't know why i never thought of this before -- knitting a hat like jayne's ugly orange hat on firefly! i thought my idea was so novel until i google it and find that patterns to recreate the hat are all over the internet. i decided to use this one designed by a blogger named erika. (scroll down for pics of jayne in his hat.)

i'm sure by the time i finish it it'll be too warm for this hat, but i can't resist.

after: pink "J" pillow

2006-02-05T18:59:00.000-05:00

thanks for your advice everyone. after attempting to rip apart the sleeves i realized that this yarn had partially felted and would not rip apart. so the decision was made for me, and i sewed this pillow instead. then i remembered that i had this "J" in my craft box -- i bought it a few months ago figuring i'd find some use for it. luckily, my friend's name is jenny, because the "J" is perfect for this pillow.

since all i can say is "i bought a sweater, cut out two pieces, and sewed them together" i'll give this to her as a "housewarming present" rather than as a birthday present. i'll think of something else to get her for her birthday. but still, i hope she likes it. it's not as impressive as knitting a pillow, but it did take me all afternoon.

before: thrift store sweaters

2006-02-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

here are the two sweaters i bought at the thrift store to recycle. first, the plum cardigan with embroidered flowers. i love this picture. i am required to tell you all that trav only posed for this photo under duress. i think it looks good on him. he's kind of got a post-kurt cobain thing going on.

i already ripped this one apart and i'm still swatching and deciding what to make with it. my latest idea is to make a sleeveless shell with this yarn and the pink and white "mutiny" i have in my stash. the weather has been so mild here, i'm already thinking of spring and summer projects.

here's the other sweater i bought last week, the one i want to make into a pillow for a friend. i need to get moving on it, her birthday is coming up soon. i really need some help deciding what to do. should i rip it apart and knit a pillow with the yarn, perhaps the "nubbly" pillow from snb nation? or, should i use the sweater as is and sew it into a pillow? obviously, just sewing it into a pillow would be a lot easier, but it would probably come out a lot nicer if i knitted a new pillow, wouldn't it? this friend loves pink and elvis and retro stuff. i think she might like a nubbly pillow a lot more than a plain stockinette pillow. please advise.

maybe i'll take off one of the sleeves and try swatching with it. then, i can make up my mind better and if i decide to sew the pillow i still can. yes! that's what i'll do.

four

2006-02-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

i've been tagged by michelle for the "four" meme. coincidentally, i've been sick for four days so i haven't been posting much. meanwhile, i have been posting on metroblogging dc -- if you want to see my posts you can click on "jen m." on the list of authors and you'll get a list of my recent posts.

last weekend i had a great trip to the thrift store. among other things, i bought two sweaters to rip apart to recycle the yarn. i've never done this before. yesterday i ripped apart one of the sweaters, a shapeless plum-colored cardigan. i'm going to make a new cardigan out of it, my first attempt at knitting a sweater. i will post "before and after" pics soon. i'm feeling very adventurous lately, trying new things. although it is kind of weird to rip up a plum-colored cardigan just to knit a new plum-colored cardigan.

the other sweater i want to make into a pillow for a friend. i was thinking of just cutting up and sewing the sweater into a pillow, but i think i'm going to rip it apart and knit a new pillow in a funky pattern. i haven't quite decided. any advice from someone who has cut up and sewn a sweater before? will it gum up my sewing machine?

anyway, here's that meme:

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life:
i just picked some random ones that seemed interesting...

1. in high school i had a summer job at TCBY. it was great: i could eat whatever i wanted (this was before i was vegan) and we were rarely busy during my shift. most of the time i was the only person in the store and my friends would come in and chat with me during my downtime. my friend lori worked at dip top that same summer and her job was so much harder than mine. she had to deal with hordes of screaming children, plus dipping the ice cream in that hardening shell is difficult. i just had to press the lever to dispense the soft yogurt. the one thing i didn't like was making flurries, because i thought they were too much work. when the manager wasn't around i'd just tell people the flurry machine was broken so i didn't have to make flurries. that was probably the best job i've ever had.

2. also during high school, i volunteered as a candy striper at the hospital where my dad works.

3. during college, i was an assistant to a woman who owns her own public relations company and helped her both with administrative tasks and with p.r. work. i got that job after applying to be a part-time nanny for her 6 month old son. she decided she needed a full-time nanny but liked me so much she hired me to work for her p.r. business. during my christmas break in 1993 she was organizing an official party for clinton's inauguration and i volunteered to come down to dc and help her. that was pretty exciting, even though the clintons never made it to our party. i also worked for her briefly the year after i graduated college, before i moved to texas for law school. the 6 month old son is now in high school and i'm still friends with the family.

4. the summer after my first year of law school, i won a fellowship to work for an austin nonprofit that provides legal services to people with HIV. i pretty much spent the entire summer visiting dying clients in their homes or in hospices and helping them complete wills and medical directives. i think that was the best experience i had during law school.

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
ok, when you start asking me questions like this i have to give my standard "gemini disclaimer" -- my tastes are constantly changing and anything i put down today might not make the list tomorrow. that said, these four movies are pretty much all time classics...

1. Office Space
2. Sixteen Candles
3. Legally Blond
4. Star Wars

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch:

1. battlestar galactica
2. 24
3. general hospital
4. the simpsons

Four Favorite Books:
i'm really not much of a reader.

1. to kill a mockingbird
2. stitch n' bitch (i taught myself how to knit with it and i use it all the time.)
3. the tipping point (even though i'm not done with it yet) and blink
4. diet for a new america (because it is largely responsible for me deciding to go vegan)

like michelle, i also love the dictionary, but i use dictionary.com rather than a paper dictionary.

Four Albums You Can't Hear Too Often:
really, there is no album i can't hear too often, i get sick of music pretty fast. but some of my most frequently played albums are... (don't forget about the gemini disclaimer)

1. ozomatli -- street signs
2. strike anywhere -- exit english
3. the new transit direction -- unreleased demo
4. linda ronstadt, dolly parton, emmylou harris -- trio II

Four Places You Have Lived:

1. grew up in orange, connecticut
2. currently live in takoma park, maryland ->
3. went to law school in austin, texas (and still one of my favorite places on earth)
4. i was born on Griffiss Airforce Base in upstate new york. the base is out of commission and in fact is now a park which was the site for the 1999 Woodstock festival.

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation:
this was too hard to narrow down, so i picked the last four places i've been on vacation...

1. hawaii
2. san francisco
3. alaska ->
4. british virgin islands

Four Websites You Visit Daily:
(excluding my own blogs and my email providers...)

1. washingtonpost.com
2. statcounter.com (to read the stats on my blogs)
3. michelle knits and other friends' blogs
4. myspace.com

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:

1. watermelon
2. vegan Mexican food -- if i had to pick just one dish, i'd say a breakfast taco made with homemade soft corn tortilla and fresh guacamole
3. chips and salsa and beer, ideally from mother's cafe in austin, texas. (yes, i love chips and salsa so much that i will not just lump it in with "vegan Mexican food"!)
4. brussel sprouts

Places You Would Rather be Right Now:

1. after that last question, austin so that i could get some good breakfast tacos and mother's chips and salsa.
2. hawaii ->
3. home in bed (i still don't feel well)
4. visiting my dad in connecticut

i'm very excited to be going to san francisco later this month.

Four People You'll Tag:

1. trav
2. krissy
3. liza
4. sarah

sometimes it's fun to let someone else do the sewing

2006-01-22T12:00:00.000-05:00

this isn't about knitting or crafts, but i thought you crafty gals would appreciate it, so i'm posting anyway.

i'm super excited about the new custom handmade laptop bag i ordered from m. avery designs. you can select whatever fabric you like for your bag, and also the dimensions of the bag. it comes with an inside pocket that is custom-sized for your particular laptop, in my case my new 12" ibook. so it is more protective than a normal bag that lets your computer slide around inside.

it will be a couple of weeks before i receive my new bag, but this is my sketch of what it will look like. the flap will be in this really cool vintage-looking surfer boy print, and the rest of the bag will be in a matching red fabric. i think it will be the coolest laptop bag ever. she's going to send me the scrap surfer boy fabric so i can make myself a matching coin purse or cell phone cover or something.

they also sell many other kinds of bags that you can custom design with your choice of fabric. definitely check out the site, it's awesome. it's great for vegans who want an alternative to leather bags. and it's all handmade in new jersey -- no sweatshops. if you live near hoboken, they even have handbag workshops where you can learn to design and sew handbags yourself.

a little too pleased with myself

2006-01-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

here are the finished eyelet legwarmers. not the best picture but i was running out the door to go dancing to 80s music. maybe cameron will send a pic of her wearing them.

also this week:

pants... hemmed.
blog... posted upon.
new ibook computer... set up and rarin' to go.
80s music... danced to (until 2 am i might add).
wingman duties for single friend... skillfully accomplished.
dog... bathed.
fun for tonight... researched and decided upon.
bookclub webpage... updated

so it's been a productive week and i'm very excited for the weekend. i want to spend a lot of time sleeping and watching movies, and cook my weekly big batch of healthy food. maybe i'll do some swatching for a new knitting project, tinker around with some other crafts. TGIF, folks!

makin' stuff

2006-01-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

i haven't been knitting but i have been makin' stuff. i finished one legwarmer and i'm very pleased with myself and my seaming skillz. i have to say that this legwarmer is the best legwarmer i've ever seen in person (though i bet the legwarmers michelle makes are better).

i've been cooking more than usual. friday night i made doggie cookies from a "recipe" i made up. my dog has food allergies and she can't have wheat, which is in most dog treats. so i make her vegan doggie cookies out of peanut butter, molasses, oats, oat flour, baking powder, oil, and carrot "chips." she adores them. i also made human cookies, but from a mix. saturday, i baked up a big pan of mexican style casserole.

here's my "recipe" for mexican style casserole: i layer the bottom of a big casserole dish with polenta slices drizzled with some olive oil. then i toss chopped zucchini, chopped broccoli, chopped carrots, corn, and pinto beans with salsa, hot sauce, garlic, cumin seeds, cinnamon, and salt and pepper. pour the veggies on top of the polenta, cover, and bake for about an hour until veggies are cooked. serve with a dollop of vegan sour cream.

sunday i started to hem a pair of pants for travis. he found a really nice pair of ben sherman slacks at tj maxx but they were way too long. it's taking me a while to hem. first, because i was shortening them by about 4 inches, i had to cut off several inches of fabric and figure out how to finish off the cut ends. i had never done that before, usually i just let out the hem and raise it like an inch without cutting the fabric. i have no idea what the correct way to finish off fabric is, and i doubt i have the tools to accomplish the correct method anyway. it looked like the end that i cut off had been finished with a serger and i definitely do not own a serger.

what i ended up doing is use the "zig zag" feature on my sewing machine to create a dense line beyond which the fabric hopefully won't fray (it was trav's idea) and then cut the fabric about a quarter of inch beyond the line. i hope that works. obviously, it doesn't look too pretty but no one will see it. then, i was kind of obsessive about measuring and pinning the hems correctly. so by the time i actually started hemming i didn't have time to get much done!

i still haven't found the yarn i need to finish my poncho yet. i will probably have to order it. while i was at ac moore looking for the yarn i bought size 8 needles and some lion jiffy to make a hat with. i want to make myself a really warm hat. none of my winter hats keep out the cold wind. the jiffy yarn looks super warm, and i want to knit it as tight as i can to make it dense and cozy. the 8s might be too small, but i thought i'd give it a try.

tonight i want to finish the second leg warmer so that i can give them to cameron on friday. i think now that i know what i'm doing, it will go much faster. i don't know why i was so scared of seaming -- as long as i remember to seam the correct pieces, it's actually pretty easy. later this week i want to finish the pants and swatch the lion jiffy for my warm hat.

travis (who has never knit a thing in his life) corrected my knitting mistake

2006-01-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

so, armed with emily's advice, i sat down to seam up the leg warmers. i had the book in front of me, good light, straight pins, yarn, scissors, a yarn needle -- all the supplies i needed. reading the directions from my book, i pin the two squares together, tack the yarn, and start seaming. i go slow, as emily suggested. i get about 4 inches done. it looks great! i'm so proud! i call travis over to show him my beautiful seaming. he looks at it like i'm sewing a sock onto a pair of underwear. "what's wrong? doesn't my seam look good?" he points out my mistake.

did you spot it? read the above paragraph again. i pinned the TWO SQUARES TOGETHER. i was doing a beautiful job of seaming the two legwarmers together! arg! i'm such an idiot. "aren't you supposed to sew each leg warmer to itself, not to the other one?" travis asks. why yes. so perceptive of you to notice. "or are you trying to sew one giant legwarmer that will go around both legs," he continues, chuckling and making exagerrated gestures indicating what it would be like to wear one giant tube around both legs. ha ha. i wasn't amused. "don't make fun of me! i just spent an hour an a half on that," i whined. at least he pointed out my mistake before i had finished seaming the whole thing together.

proof! (and a bonus for being so patient)

2006-01-10T23:18:00.000-05:00

here are those eyelet legwarmers! they are merrily blocking on the kitchen table as we speak. or write. or i write and you read. (note that the one on the right is upside down in the photo.)

i hope this cheap red heart super saver yarn takes the blocking as well as the linen blend i used for the christmas miracle scarf and hat.

now i have to figure out how to sew a nice seam. i haven't really done that before.

...and here is your bonus for being so patient. i took this photo from a moving convertible back in september, 2001 during our cross-country road trip. we were right outside of moab, utah, on our way to the moab jazz festival. that's how amazing utah is -- you can just aim a point and shoot camera out the car window and snap a picture and you can capture something as beautiful as this.

i've been knitting, really

2006-01-05T14:44:00.001-05:00

i've got one of cameron's eyelet legwarmers all knitted up and i'm knitting the second. right now, the finished one is just a blue rectangle; i haven't sewn it up yet. once i'm done with both i'll block them to the same size and then sew them up. sorry, i haven't had a chance to take pictures.

fucking cool

2005-12-29T11:18:00.000-05:00

knitted graffiti. fucking cool. i'm in awe of these women.

the christmas miracle scarf and matching hat were a hit!

2005-12-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

we had a very nice christmas. travis' cousin really seemed to like the seed stitch keyhole scarf and matching hat that i made for her. she even said she loved the seed stitch pattern and the color. everyone oohed and aahed over them, and it was a very satisfying reward for my efforts.

here's me modeling the finished product. i'm going to have to find a new model, i'm sick of looking at pictures of myself!

oh, i forgot to mention -- i did block the hat and scarf and i really like the results. it made a huge difference on the linen/acrylic blend yarn. so now i'm convinced that blocking is definitely not just for wool. thanks to everyone who gave me lowdown on blocking.

the receiving end of things also went well. we received fewer gifts this year, which is a very good thing, and they were all very thoughtful. i got the knitting book i wanted! i also got this freaky little "20Q" toy... has anyone tried that? it's just a cheap handheld toy that plays 20 questions with you and guesses what you are thinking. it's so good at it that it freaks me out. it's kind of addicting -- we played it the whole way home from pennsylvania.

although i had planned on taking a break from knitting after christmas, i couldn't wait to try out my new knitting book. i started on some legwarmers in an eyelet pattern for my friend cameron. i'm using some blue red heart supersaver that i have leftover from the long striped scarf i made travis. so at least it's a break for my wallet, if not my hands.

weird tank top thingy revisited

2005-12-23T09:04:00.000-05:00

i promised a pic of the weird tank top thingy the next time i wore it -- well, today is the next time i wore it.

i "designed" it to be worn with this jacket. you can't really tell in the picture, but the green yarn has a bit of the same shade of pink as the jacket.

don't i look all clean and freshly scrubed? i had just gotten out of the shower this morning when i got travis to take the picture.

the rest of my outfit for today, in case you are interested, consists of:

~kasper jacket from filene's basement
~tommy hilfiger jeans from filene's basement
~american apparel long sleeve tee
~old (12+ years) anne klein II necklace
~14 gauge stainless steel captive bead ring earrings (i never take them off)
~pink vegan "ugg" type boots from earth shoes (not visible)

i finished knitting the christmas miracle scarf!

2005-12-20T11:36:00.000-05:00

tonight i am going to attempt to block it, and then i have to weave in the yarn ends and i'm done.

meanwhile, since i have a few days before christmas and almost an entire skein of yarn left over, i'm making a matching seed stitch hat to go with it. i have about an inch and a half done so far. i'm not going to worry about blocking the hat, so if i don't finish it until sunday morning, that will be fine. yay! i can finally stop stressing about knitting this christmas present and start enjoying the holidays.

my knitting guardian angel

2005-12-16T08:02:00.000-05:00

i guess i must have good knitting karma after all. yesterday morning my knitting (the seed stitch scarf that needs to be done by christmas) fell out of my messenger bag as i walked to the metro. of course i didn't realize this until i noticed it wasn't in my bag, and then had travis check at home for it when he got home in the evening. by then, we were getting a couple of inches of freezing rain and my poor knitting had been outside for over 8 hours!

i was so upset because i've already put so much work into the scarf, and if it were lost, there was no way i could get it done by christmas.

i knew it was in a plastic bag and that it must have fallen out of my messenger bag near the house, but travis swore he hadn't seen it on the sidewalk on his way home. sympathetic to my desperation, he went back outside in the rain to check again as i sat in my office stressing out and waiting for him to call me back. well, thanks to my knitting guardian angel, he found it!! someone must have picked it up off the sidewalk near my house and tied the plastic bag to our neighbor's chain link fence. inside the plastic bag the partially finished scarf and yarn were just fine!! i can't believe how lucky i am. today i'm putting up a sign outside thanking whoever did it, and asking her to stop by my house if she gets a chance so that i can buy her a drink or something to thank her.

switching gears

2005-12-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

after a sleepless night saturday night stressing about the cookies 'n creme poncho, i decided to make travis' cousin a scarf instead. i just am not at all confident that she will like it, and i've put too much time and money into it to not feel good about giving it to her. i personally like it, but it's pretty funky-looking. it's definitely not something that would appeal to everyone, and it's no fun to knit for someone unless you have some minimal level of confidence that she will like it.

on top of that, it's stressing me out because i need to buy more yarn to finish the poncho (i've already spent more on it than the secret santa rules allow) and christmas is less than two weeks away (keep in mind it has taken me three weeks to get halfway done). knitting is supposed to be fun, not something i stay up all night worrying about. so i've put it aside, and i'll finish it when i get the time.

meanwhile, i'm about one third done with the scarf and it's really pretty. i'm using the cream stylecraft "linen-look" yarn that i bought in san francisco from my yarn stash. it looks and feels like a linen/wool blend but is vegan. i'm making a short "keyhole" scarf in a seed stitch pattern. if i have enough time and yarn when i'm done with the scarf, i'll make her a matching hat like the seed stitch hat i made for myself. i feel much better about the gift now -- it's conservative yet feminine, pretty yet practical, and i feel like it's the kind of thing that any woman would like.

can someone explain blocking to me?

2005-12-09T10:44:00.000-05:00

i thought only wool projects need to be blocked, but after surfing other blogs it seems like people block non-wool. should i be blocking finished objects that are made from plant and synthetic yarns? what about this poncho i'm making that is a mishmash of cotton, bamboo, soy, AND acrylic -- including some yarns that are "dry clean only"?

if i should be blocking vegan yarns, how do i do that?

any advice on blocking vegan yarn (or not blocking it) would be greatly appreciated.

snowman christmas tree ornament

2005-12-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

i keep thinking of non-knitting craft projects i want to do to procrastinate from working on my poncho. last night i made this snowman christmas tree ornament as a hostess gift for a tree trimming party we are invited to:

i made it entirely out of scraps -- scraps of white, black, and blue/yellow/green yarn, orange thread from an old sewing repair kit that i got free from a hotel, and scrap cardboard. the "snowballs" are made by wrapping white yarn around circular pieces of cardboard. then i embroidered the buttons, eyes, and carrot nose. finally, i knitted him a little scarf and sewed the whole thing together.

since i didn't have any small knitting needles, to knit the mini-scarf i used bamboo skewers, which i sanded and rubbed on wax paper to smooth them. not an ideal solution for sure, but good enough for government work, as i always say.

i must have been inspired to make a snowman by the beautiful scene i woke up to yesterday morning, after the first snowfall of the season. this is what my street looked like when i walked to the metro yesterday morning.

our house is the closest one on the right. if you want to see more pretty pictures i took on my walk to the metro, check out the full set on my flickr page.

i guess i'm doing a series of photos of my morning walk to the takoma metro during different seasons. there's a set from fall, and now i've started one for winter.

starbucks challenge

2005-12-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

this has nothing to do with knitting, but it does have to do with being vegan...

siel at green LA girl has been doing a great job of challenging starbucks to live up to its promise to french-press a cup of fair trade coffee for anyone who wants it. please check out this letter to starbucks and consider signing on.

i haven't been participating in the challenge because i am lucky to have access to independent cafes that serve fair trade organic coffee, and i'd rather patronize them than starbucks even if starbucks did serve fair trade coffee. but if you live in an area where starbucks and other chains have a near monopoly, please consider joining the challenge. it's easy! all you have to do is go into starbucks and ask them to french-press a cup of fair trade coffee for you, and then report the results.

arg!

2005-12-02T08:17:00.000-05:00

i've had to rip several inches of the poncho and several hours of work, about to where i started knitting at the cpr class. i guess that's what i get for not giving the class my full attention. but i swear, i know how to do cpr: check, call, care! ... "annie, annie, are you ok?!" ... ABC (airway, breathing, circulation)! ... look, listen, feel for signs of respiration! ... rescue breathing is 1 breath every 5 seconds! ... cpr is 15 compressions (at a rate of about 100 per minute) to 2 breaths! ...

now can i have some good knitting karma?

on a happier note, i've gotten a lot of compliments when wearing my seed stitch hat and several of my friends want me to teach them to knit. i'm excited for vegan stitch 'n bitch on sunday and hopefully i'll get a lot done on the poncho this weekend.

knitting is only for old ladies

2005-12-01T05:41:00.000-05:00

i had a funny exchange last night while knitting in public. i waiting for my cpr class to begin and was having a conversation with a gentleman in his fifties about how neither of us act our age. (i'm 34, by the way.) he said "but you are acting older than your age by knitting!" i told him that actually, knitting is very hip with the younger generation these days. he cracked up as if i had told him that top hats were back in style. he kept laughing and laughing and saying things like: "oh yeah right, i'm sure a lot of young folks are knitting these days" and "who are you trying to convince?" i just smiled and warned him, "you are showing your age, if you don't know that knitting is hip now. not that i particularly care whether it is hip or not."

he kept it up, laughing and making fun of me, for literally about 2 minutes, which is a long time to sit there laughing at someone! he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard, that i would try to claim that knitting was hip. i just sat there smirking and let him have his fun.

if i ever start arguing with someone 20 years younger than me over what is hip, that's when i know i'm over the hill and it's time to retire to the porch rocking chair to shake my cane at all the young whippersnappers.

p.s. i'm about a quarter done with the cookies 'n creme poncho. i got a lot done during cpr class, but don't worry, it was just an annual re-certification. this is the fourth year in a row i've taken the class and i know the material inside and out even without devoting 100% of my attention to the class.

draft stoppers

2005-11-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

my second sewing project is done! we needed three draft stoppers for the crawlspace doors in our bedroom, which also happens to be the attic. very drafty! so i made these.

they were very inexpensive to make: i used an old bedspread i bought at a thrift store for $5 and i bought a big bag of sand for less than $5 at strosnider's hardware store. after i machine-sewed the bedspread into tubes, i filled some empty newspaper bags about halfway full with sand, squeezed all the air out of the bag and tied it at the top. by doing this, the sand molds nicely to the inside of the sewn tube. i filled each draft stopper with several of these sand bags and used fabric scraps to nicely fill out each end before hand-sewing it shut. one thing i really like about these is that nothing was wasted in making them -- the scraps left over from cutting out the fabric went into filling out the ends of the draft stoppers.

strosnider's was selling pre-made draft stoppers for $13 each and they weren't as good as these -- they were only filled with pillow stuffing. for less than $10 i made three much better ones, and i still have a lot of the blue bedspread left for other projects and sand for our front steps when it gets icy. and they didn't take very long to make, just a couple of hours. yay me!

my long striped scarf in action

2005-11-25T17:53:00.000-05:00

it's always fun to see one of your creations being put to good use! it's nice to have a handsome model to make your knitting look so good.

cookies 'n creme poncho in progress! (finally)

2005-11-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

i finally got started on the poncho for amy, trav's cousin. i spent a lot of time yesterday knitting. the pattern i'm using is from "teen knitting club" -- it's basically a 20 inch by 45 inch rectangle, and then you are supposed to fold it in half and sew up about 2/3 from the end towards the center on one long side, leaving the middle part open as the neck opening. it ends up hanging down on a diagonal off your shoulders.

instead of sewing up part of the long side, i think i'm going to sew on a row of buttons. that way, it can either be worn as a poncho with the buttons buttoned, or if you undo the buttons it can be worn as a wrap. plus, i think the buttons will look nicer than a sewed seam (keeping in mind my poor seaming skills). what do you guys think?

inspired by a fashion show i saw at the dc knit out and crochet, i bought a bunch of different texture yarns in black, taupe, and cream (hence the nickname "cookies 'n creme"), and i'm making up the stripe pattern as i go along. my original plan was to knit horizontal strips on a 36" needle but the size 10 36" needle i bought for this purpose was not working out -- it was knitting WAAAAAAY too tight. after wrestling with it for a while, i gave up and started knitting the short side on a size 11 16" needle. so, in order to make sure the stripes line up when the buttons are closed, i'm going to make the stripe pattern mirror itself from left to right -- clever, huh?

i'm really nervous that she won't like it, because i don't really know her too well. if you recall the origins of this project, trav's family does a "secret santa" thing where you are randomly assigned one person to give a gift to, rather than everyone buy gifts for everyone else. this year, i got amy. this is what i know about her (other than the fact that she is really nice): she is my age, artistic, she wears a lot of black, and she has a pretty "classic but fashionable" sense of style. so i wanted to keep the colors basic and neutral, but snazz it up a bit with some funky textures and irregular width stripes. as far as i can tell, it will suit her. still, i'm worried i'll put all this work into it and she won't like it. i'm considering putting in a note that if she wants to "exchange" it for a custom made poncho, i'd be happy to make her one in any color and style she wants. but maybe i'm just being silly.

seed stitch hat finished!

2005-11-22T01:46:00.000-05:00

it's almost 2 in the morning, and my hands are sore from knitting two together, but i finished the seed stitch hat. i'm proud to say that it fits great, despite having "winged it" and refused to follow a pattern.

(by the way, i knitted this on size 10 16in circular needles using two strands of "mutiny" at once. that's why it looks so chunky.)

now i don't have to wash my hair all winter, because i plan on wearing my new pink seed stitch hat all day every day.

finished recycled sari bag and seed stitch hat in progress

2005-11-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

i finished the recycled sari bag. while we were in york this weekend, we went to ben franklin crafts store and i found some hot pink fabric scraps to make the lining for only a couple of dollars. (i also found some mission falls cotton on clearance, so i had to violate my moratorium on buying yarn and snatch that up.)

yesterday i sewed up the lining for the bag; for my first attempt at machine sewing i thought it came out really nice. then i hand sewed the lining into the bag and sewed on the handles with sari yarn. i hate doing all of that post-knitting work, but i have to say the finished bag looks impressive. i'm really really proud of it.

here is another "in progress" photo with the bag turned partially inside-out to show the lining.

also, i'm about 1/3 done with a seed stitch hat i'm making for myself. i'm using hand-painted "mutiny" yarn i bought on sale from the black stitch. i really recommend everyone check out this site -- rebecca's hand-painted yarns are really beautiful and so reasonably priced! the mutiny yarn only cost $4 a skein! i'm so happy with the yarn that i forgive rebecca for slipping some hard candies into the package, which led to my dog tearing up the box to get to said candies. i came home one day to find my living room strewn with cardboard, shredded plastic bag pieces, yarn, and three empty chewed-up candy wrappers. but the yarn appears to have survived ok, the dog survived ok, and all's well that ends well!

i'm not following any pattern for this hat, i'm just making it up. there is a "seam" area between the end of each row and the beginning of the next row where there are two knit stitches or two purl stitches next to each other, instead of the usual knit/purl/knit/purl seed stitch. but i figured that this faux seam would look better than a real sewed seam (especially considering my poor seam sewing skills), and i couldn't figure out any other way to make seed stitch hat on circular needles and avoid sewing a seam. we'll see how it comes out.

i worked on the seed stitch hat during my vegan stitch and bitch yesterday. it's a nice portable project for knitting in public. we had a nice time and had some yummy food. if anyone else is in the dc area, you should come knit with us! we meet the first and third sunday of every month at busboys and poets at 3 pm. email me if you want more info, or just show up!

still waiting for my yarn and needles to arrive for the christmas present poncho, and i'm getting stressed! never buy anything from joann.com -- they suck and their customer service is nearly non-existent. i re-ordered everything from another website, and hopefully it will be here soon.

ribbed legwarmers

2005-11-16T14:57:00.000-05:00

i forgot to post about my legwarmers! i made these last spring -- they were my second knitting project ever -- but didn't have a chance to wear them until recently. i thought they were sucky, but i ended up getting a lot of compliments on them.

i made them with lion jiffy thick and quick. and sure enough, they are very thick and were very quick to knit.

the main problem with these legwarmers is that i made them on a 16 inch circular needle, not realizing you can't make a tube smaller than 16 inches on a 16 inch needle! so they are very baggy, which is ok except they tend to slide right off my foot when i walk. i made a temporary repair by weaving in a piece of yarn around the bottom and tying it around my ankle, but when i get a chance i am going to weave in a piece of elastic so i don't have to tie on the yarn and cut it off each time i put on or take off the legwarmers.

i was really surprised at the enthusiastic responses i got when i wore these! one woman even asked me if i sell them.

in progress: recycled sari bag

2005-11-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

as promised, here's a photo of my latest project in progress. the knitting is about 40% done. also pictured are the bamboo handles and little lotus charm that will be sewn on. i really like using the recycled rayon sari yarn.

the "pattern" is from stitch 'n bitch, but you basically just knit up a tube on circular needles, sew up the bottom, sew in a simple lining, sew on the handles, sew on a little decorative charm if you want, and that's it.

the fabric lining will be my first "real" sewing machine project. since it won't really be visible, it's a good practice project. i think i can handle sewing some straight lines. any ideas on what color fabric i should get? i'm thinking black.

trav was in san francisco with his dad last weekend and i always have the worst habits when he's away: i stay up way too late, i always forget to eat, when i do i eat terribly... on saturday night i stayed up until 5:30 am knitting!

meanwhile, trav's sister had her baby over the weekend! her name is meghan olivia. i hope little meghan likes the umbilical cord hat i knitted for her.

yesterday, i was in a bookstore and ended up buying myself stitch 'n bitch nation on impulse. there are a lot of cute baby and kids patterns in it -- i'm sure i'll be knitting more things for little meghan. we are going to go to pennsylvania to visit her and the rest of the family next weekend.

the stuff i ordered to make the poncho hasn't come yet, and i'm getting a bit nervous -- only about 6 more weeks until christmas, and i have no idea how long it will take me to knit a poncho. i hope the package comes soon. i bought some buttons for it at michael's craft store, because i decided not to use the coconut husk buttons i brought back from hawaii after all. i decided i want to save them to use on something for myself - is that terrible of me?

"witching hour" craftiness, reconsidered

2005-11-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

i changed my mind about my big idea for the baby hat. i can now reveal that my big idea was to embroider the finished hat with a design of my own creation, loosely based on a tee shirt i saw at crafty bastards crafts fair. it was going to be different families drawn in stick figures, as if drawn by a child. the different families would reflect the various possible gender combinations families might have, one would have two daddies and a baby, another would have two mommies and two babies, etc.

several factors played into my decision to scrap the idea, but basically it came down to me sitting there looking at a very nice, finished baby hat and starting to doubt whether the wisest thing to do was risk destroying it with an ambitious design in a technique i had never even tried before. after all, so far this month i don't have a very good record of success with my middle-of-the-night craft ideas. anyway, i rationalized to myself that all that embroidery would make the hat much more fragile, after i had gone out of my way to make it durable and washable for rough-and-tumble baby use. so i brought the finished hat to the baby shower "as is."

it was a very nice shower, by the way. i am not a big fan of typical baby showers, with their silly pregnancy games and conversation that never strays from the subject of babies and baby accessories. but as i suspected, this shower was much more pleasant and down-to-earth than the typical baby shower, and i had a good time catching up with the guests of honor and meeting some of their friends and family. nonetheless, i was reminded of Reason #56 Why I Don't Want Kids: baby stuff! i am always trying to have less stuff, and babies seem to require so much stuff. well, at least middle class american babies do; i'm sure that in many parts of the world babies manage to grow to adulthood without diaper genies and special breastfeeding pillows. but i'm sure i'd want the convenience of such things myself, if i had a baby. and the baby stuff is nothing compared to the legos and tricycles and school notebooks and yu-gi-oh cards and then they want a cell phone and a car... ay ay ay! i'm very happy for my friends who are stoked about motherhood, but better you than me!

in other knitting news, i did some more damage this weekend as my online yarn spending spree continued, but i'm done now. no more yarn for me for a long time. soon, i'll be able to get started on the poncho for trav's cousin; i'm still waiting to receive the yarn and the 36 inch circular needle i ordered for it. i bought the 36 inch needle because i want to make it with horizontal stripes so i needed a way to cast on a lot of stitches. the other project on my horizon is the bamboo handle bag from stitch 'n bitch. i'm going to make it out of my recycled rayon sari yarn, but i want to find the bamboo handles before i start working on it so i know what size to make the bag. any ideas on where to purchase such things?

my poor neglected cotton candy hat project is on hold for now.

knitting wishes

2005-11-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

have you ever wished you could knit while doing something else?

these are my big ones:

* knit and exercise
* knit and drive
* knit while i'm at work/ knit during meetings
* knit while watching a movie with subtitles
* knit and walk the dog

last night i found out that several women in my yoga class knit. a couple of them were knitting while waiting for class to start - great idea! i think knitting is very yogic and it is quite appropriate to make knitting a part of one's yoga practice. my yoga studio even offers workshops on the yoga of knitting. i'd like to take one at some point, but it costs $45 and right now i'd rather spend the money on yarn!

i also found out my yoga teacher kate is a doula, which i did not know before last night. if any dc area folks out there are having a baby, you should seriously consider asking her to be your doula. she's such an awesome person. of course, i highly recommend taking yoga with her too!

oh, and some of my new yarn came already! i can't wait to use it.

"witching hour" craftiness

2005-11-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

oooh, i have such a good idea for the baby hat i'm making!! i thought of it in the middle of the night last night after i couldn't sleep. i drank too much beer and wine last night at the halloween festivities and it messed up my sleep, but it was worth it because i'm really excited about my new idea!

i can't reveal my baby hat idea here because i know liza (one of smudge's mamas) reads this blog, but i'll just say two things about it: (1) it will require me to learn a new type of needle art that i haven't done before and (2) it was inspired by liza's comment yesterday about gender stereotyping and also by a tee shirt (no, not the dirty dancing one!) i saw at crafty bastards craft fair.

it may or may not be done in time for the shower on saturday, depending on how long this new technique takes me to conquer. but i'll definitely post pics once the mamas have received it.

i just hope this middle-of-the-night craft idea works better than the bat costume for my dog that i thought up in the middle of the night saturday night. it was a cute idea, since she's blind -- get it, blind as a bat? but you couldn't tell what she was supposed to be. it was my first time ever using a sewing machine, so i deserve some slack for that.

$$$

2005-10-31T12:18:00.000-05:00

i just went on an online yarn shopping spree. the original idea was to buy some yarn for the poncho i am making trav's cousin, but i got a bit crazy. this is one of the yarns i bought: recycled rayon/cotton sari yarn. i have no idea what i'm going to use it for. but it's so pretty, i just wanted to see what it looked like in person. i'm sure i'll think of something to make with it!

i started the baby hat and i'm about half done. i used the pakucho cotton i had left over from the first baby hat i made. i'm worried that a plain off-white hat is kind of boring for mamas and baby, but there's something about the simplicity of this yarn that i like for baby clothes. anyway, i'm not into pastels for babies and i wouldn't know what other colors to use to match a baby's wardrobe. i hope little smudge likes it. i ended up ripping the cotton candy hat; i had only done like one line and it wasn't worth transferring it to other needles or a stitch holder.

slacker knitter seeks advice

2005-10-27T07:26:00.000-05:00

we saw "wallace and gromit" last weekend. i think gromit wins the award for "world's cutest knitter."

i haven't done any knitting at all lately. i think it's largely because of battlestar galactica. when i'm home and have free time all i wanna do is watch battlestar galactica, and i don't want to be distracted by knitting while i watch it. i think i've been watching it a bit too much though, because i had a dream of being attacked by a cylon.

anyhoo, now i have to get cracking. i promised my friend liza an umbilical cord hat for her upcoming bundle of joy, thinking i had until february when she's due. but i just found out her shower is in a week and a half, and i suppose i should really have it done by then, huh? i hope i have enough yarn in my stash.

i think i'm going to have to rip apart my cotton candy hat a second time to free up the needles for the umbilical cord hat. it's not that big a deal because i only have like a half inch done, but still i don't like to do that. anyone have any ideas on how to save the hat? it's on a 16in size 10 circular needle.

after that, i have to get going on a christmas present for travis' cousin. his family does a "secret santa" thing where each person draws a name and only buys a present for that one person, saving much money and pointless gift giving. i drew his cousin, and i think she'd really like an elegant wrap/wide scarf. i'd also like to add a strategically placed button or buttons so that it can be fastened to make it like a cape or poncho, you know? i got some great ideas at the 2005 d.c. knit-out and crochet last weekend. i want to use mostly black and/or shades of brown, with a little bit of accent color, and use several different textures of yarn. one possibility i've been considering is black soy silk and/or bamboo with recycled sari yarn. but, if i do it in browns and neutrals, i have some really cool coconut husk buttons i brought back from hawaii that would look great. i have to get my butt over to a yarn store and see what catches my eye.

more fiber art

2005-10-07T16:10:00.000-05:00

these are two pieces of 2-D fiber art by an artist named chad alan. they were part of a larger installation displayed at the 2004 artomatic show in dc. the pieces were made using various scraps of fabric, thread, and yarn sewn and stitched together. i would have bought more, but i couldn't afford them. i had to pick the two i absolutely could not live without. they are two of my most prized possessions.

i discovered another amazing fiber artist today; her name is agata olek. check out the photos of her wearable sculptures on her website. isn't that crocheted wedding dress amazing? i came across her work because she did some crocheted set pieces for a dance performance that my friend jon was involved in.

i personally haven't been knitting much this week. i'm still working on my cotton candy hat, take two. i did put up our halloween decorations, not that it took very long. it's just a ceramic jack o lantern, a hanging skeleton, and some stringy spider web stuff on the porch. we still have to go get our pumpkin. halloween is my favorite holiday, i can't wait!

check out the new link on vegan yarns

2005-10-05T11:01:00.000-05:00

moira of fake sheep has done a great job putting together this page on vegan yarn. i'm using it to put my christmas list together!

crafty bastards

2005-10-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

yesterday was the crafty bastards crafts show in adams morgan. there were tons of great crafts from duct tape ipod covers to silk screened tees (my favorite was one that said "nobody puts baby in the corner") to knitted skull and crossbones bags. here's the squished penny trav got for his collection, isn't that awesome?

plus, there was live music and
some really fabulous breakdancers.

i bought two things, a rag rug and a bag (see below), both pink. after that, i put myself under a pink moratorium, and since nothing that wasn't pink really tempted me, i got out of there without doing any more damage.

the bag is really well made out of corduroy, with a cute embroidered birdy. it even has a nice lining of pale pink cotton with white polka dots. it's by wonderland Q.

i didn't buy anything knitted or crocheted, on the principle that if i really wanted those items i'd teach myself to make them. but i did get a lot of knitting inspiration.

i really don't understand how anyone can make any money selling stuff they knit. they were selling scarves for like $25. with the amount of time it takes me to knit a scarf, i'd be making like $2 an hour. not that i was planning on selling my knitting anyway, i just hope these girls are faster knitters than i am.

p.s. speaking of pink... i finished the cotton candy hat i was making but i ended up ripping it apart. (is there some "in" knitting word for this i don't know yet?) it was too loose. i don't think my swatch was accurate compared to the final product. i'm going to re-do it with 66 stitches instead of 80.

tag, you're it

2005-09-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

siel from green la girl tagged me with one of the tails of basic juice's meme. if any of you think i'm talking in klingon, join the club. i think what i'm supposed to do is post about the best, wine-friendliest dish i've tasted over the past month and then tag someone else to continue the meme. i hope that's right. leave it to me to break the internet.

well, see the thing is, i'm TOTALLY not a foodie at all. while i appreciate being included (now i feel like a real blogger!) i'm such the wrong person to speak about food. pretty much every night for dinner i heat up an amy's frozen non-dairy pot pie and dump on it a bowl of nuked frozen veggies, add mucho salt, and that's my dinner. i really don't know what wine would go well paired with that.

scouring my memory for something a bit more gourmet than frozen dinners, probably the best food i've had in the last month was from zaytinya, a fabulous turkish/lebanese/greek restaurant in dc. my co-workers and i went for lunch last week. since i wanted to stay awake for my afternoon at work, i didn't have any wine, but i'm sure the meal would have been even more delectable paired with a wine from zaytinya's wine list.

zaytinya is a fun place to go with a group, because the menu is comprised of mezzes, or small plates that are shared by the whole table. the highlights of this meal for me were the "havuç köftesi" (carrot, apricot and pinenut fritters with pistachio sauce) and the "baba ghannouge" with still-warm-out-of-the-oven flatbread. of course, baba ghannoush (as i like to spell it) is hardly a gourmet dish, but zaytinya does an exceptional version of the mediterranean classic, and pairing it with the fresh flatbread certainly helps elevate it above typical "falafel shop" fare. i loved the bread so much i requested some olive oil to dip it in once all the mezzes were gone, and that turned out to be a brilliant decision. the chef made up a plate of olive oil laced with a swirl of pomegranate reduction; the combination of the olive oil and pomegranate was incredible. if i'm a foodie about anything, it's probably bread, so for me that was really the highlight of the meal.

vegan knitter of sweet little domestic life seems to be much more of a foodie than me, so i tag her to continue this tail.

mmm, cotton candy

2005-09-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

i bought a new yarn at ac moore this weekend that i’m absolutely in love with. it’s a super-soft synthetic angora that looks like cotton candy, but hot pink. (did i ever mention that pink is my favorite color?) and, to top it off, it doesn’t seem to shed.

i started making a hat, but i want a whole wardrobe made from this yarn: matching mittens, scarf, legwarmers, etc. etc. i didn’t take a picture, i’ll just post a photo of the hat when it is done.

also, this weekend i found out some good news for vegan knitters in takoma park! i was just saying that takoma park needed a yarn store, and voila! yesterday when i was walking by a gift shop called “now and then,” i saw a basket of yarn in their window. the sign said that starting in october they will be holding knitting classes and selling yarn (in addition to selling funky gifts and cards as always). it specifically mentioned bamboo, soy silk, hemp, and organic cotton -- everything i want most! it didn’t say anything about wool. wouldn’t it be awesome if they only sold vegan yarn? either way, clearly they are focusing on vegan yarns. i can’t wait to check it out! just one more reason to love takoma park.

for those who have never been to takoma park, you should visit. the easiest way to describe it is that it’s like living in mayberry, if mayberry were racially and ethnically diverse, populated by hippies, artists, activists and other assorted liberals, and located within spitting distance of a major city. i could go on forever talking about everything i love about takoma park, but one of the biggest things has to be our little “old town” downtown area. you can see the store now and then in the background of this photo of old town taken during our annual street festival.

old town takoma is a vegan paradise, small town style. from our house we can walk to a variety of vegan friendly shops and restaurants, including a pizza place that serves (and delivers) vegan soy cheese pizza, a food co-op (where we buy most of our groceries), a boutique pet supply store (where we buy our vegan doggie biscuits), a few great consignment/vintage stores, a coffee shop serving fair trade coffee and vegan café food, an independent video store, a bead store, a middle eastern/falafel restaurant, and a diner-style restaurant with tons of vegan food (my favorite items are the ginger-tofu focaccia sandwich, asparagus and tofu brown rice fried rice, and vegan buckwheat pancakes and fakin’ bacon for weekend brunch). unfortunately, the used bookstore recently closed, which makes the good news that vegan yarn is coming to takoma all the more welcome.

if any vegan knitters want to come visit, i’d be happy to show you around dc and takoma park. then, we can go to savory, and i’ll buy you a piece of vegan chocolate cake and a fair trade coffee while we relax on the couches and knit.

umbilical cord baby hat

2005-09-20T22:46:00.000-05:00

i finished the baby hat! i really love how it came out. as planned, i used the pakucho color-grown, organic, free-trade cotton to knit the umbilical cord hat from stitch 'n bitch. i knitted it on size 10 needles using 2 strands of yarn.

i even made a little tag for it with the content and washing info from the label and wrote "made with love for my little niece-to-be by jen." i'm going to give it my sister un-law* when we go to york this weekend.

this pattern was so easy, quick, and inexpensive to knit. which is good because everyone i know seems to be having babies and this would make a great baby shower present. i have a feeling i'll be making a lot more of these. for the next one, i want to try dyeing the yarn myself with some kind of all natural dye, like maybe blueberries? i have to do some research into dyeing, right now i have no idea what is involved. but i like the idea of using berries -- if it tastes yummy, it could double as a teething toy!

* this is not a typo... i made up this word to refer to travis' family. you know, the people who would be my "in-laws" if we were lawfully married? since we are unlawfully married, i decided to call them my "un-laws." it's cute, no?

another resource on vegan yarn

2005-09-19T08:28:00.000-05:00

michelle of michelleknits is another vegan newbie knitter, and her blog has a lot of good info on vegan yarn. i definitely recommend checking it out. it's also fun to read about all the yummy vegan food she gets to eat in NYC. i can't complain about the food here in dc and maryland, but i'm definitely drooling as i read about vegan waffle cones and vegan philly cheesesteak sandwiches. i hope she doesn't mind me linking to her blog.

i have to give michelle major kudos for how far her knitting has progressed. we started knitting around the same time, but her knitting is much more advanced than mine. she's already doing three needle bind offs and small gauge sweaters while i'm noodling around with my weird tank top thingy. i'm happy to keep noodling along at my own pace, but i have serious respect for a gal with such a short learning curve.

speaking of my weird tank top thingy, i finished it in the car on the way to connecticut on saturday, and i wore it to a brunch yesterday. i actually ended up making it into a weird halter top thingy, with straps that tie behind the neck. (i didn't get a picture, maybe next time i wear it.) it's definitely different. i got some compliments on it, but i'm not in love with it. it will get more wear in the winter when i wear it under a suit jacket. that was actually my original intention when i bought the yarn: to make something that would match with a particular suit i own.

i also finished the scarf for my dad in the car on the way home. i'm so excited that i can knit in the car -- i never tried it before because i thought i'd get car sick. now that i can knit in the car, i'm up for a road trip any time! maybe i'll have to hop in the car and head up to NYC for a vegan philly cheesesteak.

of course, i couldn't bear to be completely without a knitting project, so last night i started working on the baby hat for my niece-to-be. i'm making the umbilical cord hat from stitch 'n bitch, and for the first time ever i'm actually following the pattern! i'm using that pakucho organic cotton, knitting with two strands at a time on size 10 needles. the swatch came out just the right gauge and it looks just right for a newborn baby's hat. i got a lot done on the metro this morning -- even i can manage to just knit all stitches (i.e. knitting stockinette in the round) despite the various distractions of knitting in public.

recycling a failed project: my new camera case

2005-09-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

this is my new camera case, formerly my cell phone cover. it was the proto-type for the cell phone cover i made travis. the problem is that it stretched out quickly after it was put into use, and it is now too loose and floppy to use on my cell phone. so i learned my lesson about making covers smaller than the items they are intended to cover, which is how i achieved such a nice fit on travis' cell phone cover.

meanwhile, with all the blogging i've been doing, i've started to use my digital camera quite often, and am enjoying it. it has a sliding cover over the lens, but i should probably have a case for it if i'm going to be throwing it into my bag and carrying it around town all the time. i remembered the cute camera case siel posted about on her blog green LA girl and decided to see whether my too-loose cell phone cover might work better as a camera case, and lo and behold it fits great! now i'm excited to be able to carry my camera everywhere with me and get even more fun pictures for my blogs. now that we are going to be such close friends, i should name her -- i'll call her "ollie" because she's an olympus.

by the way, i'm sorry the photo is so bad. since i was taking a picture of ollie, i used my cellphone camera to get the shot, and it doesn't take such nice pictures. i tried forever to get a nice shot and this was the best i could do.

the yarn i used for ollie's case is a nice, inexpensive 100% cotton yarn that i think works really well for ipod covers, camera cases, and the like. it's "sugar n' cream" by lily. it comes in a lot of great colors. i got it at ac moore, of course. here's a better photo of the sugar 'n cream taken with ollie.

now i just have to get working on a new cell phone cover that fits!

weird tank top thingy

2005-09-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

this is that weird tank top thingy i wrote about. this is also why i'm a terrible cook -- i hate to follow recipes. i just started knitting this without any clear idea of what i was making. pattern? pshaw, what's that?

i started knitting this in the round and then decided it would look better in a chunky rib and switched to that. i have a suit this yarn would match so i decided that it would be a tank top to wear with that suit. i guess i figured that since most of it would be under the jacket, it didn't really matter too much what it looked like. when i finished knitting the tube, i tried it on to see which way should be "up" and i decided it looked better this way. so now i'm knitting i-cord spaghetti straps for it. i'm still not sure this is something that is really suitable for wearing, but now i've put so much time into it, i'm kind of determined to wear it at least once!

here's a close up of the yarn. it's a really funky acrylic nylon blend i bought at ac moore. it's called "lazy daisy" and the brand is moda dea. this is a good example of the cool synthetic yarns that are available at ac moore. i know i've mentioned it before, but i really recommend ac moore for vegan yarn. as i said, i'm not a snob about using synthetic if it looks good, and i always manage to find a lot of fun vegan yarns at ac moore that i would love to use. i have to credit suzanne for recommending the store to me -- i never would have thought that it would have such good yarn. plus, pairing a trip to the rockville ac moore with a stop at the delicious vegetable garden restaurant right next door makes a super vegan field trip! what's better than an evening of wonton soup and fun yarn?

for those who are looking for warmth without wool, "lazy daisy" definitely fits the bill. i should have taken a photo of the inside - for some reason, most of the poofs stay on the back of the stockinette, making the inside really thick and cozy. (you can see the effect somewhat on the reverse ribs on the top, it's so kooky-looking!) stay tuned for more ac moore finds to come! now i want to go try to finish up my dad's scarf and this monstrosity before the weekend.

the dangers of knitting in public

2005-09-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

knitting in public has not been going very well for me lately. i had a good time chatting at my vegan knitting group on sunday, but didn't make any headway on my knitting -- i ended up having to rip out about 5 inches from my dad's scarf because somehow i hadn't followed the pattern while we were chatting, even though i was using a row counter. i guess i'm not good at multi-tasking. it happens when i try to knit on the metro, too; i find myself making tons of mistakes, and i barely end up with any net gain for my effort by the end of the trip.

speaking of knitting on the metro, yesterday i nearly had a knitting crisis on the metro! i was knitting on a very crowded metro car and my ball of yarn rolled off my lap and out of sight through the forest of legs. i had no idea how i was going to get it back! luckily, it hadn't rolled that far and i was able to crouch down and reach around a couple pairs of legs to grab it. phew. a few fellow passengers were wondering what the heck i was doing on the floor, brushing against their legs, but i've seen stranger sights on the metro before.

i really wanted to finish both my dad's scarf and this weird tank top thing i'm making by this weekend (pictures of weird tank top thing coming soon). we are going to visit my dad in connecticut, and i wanted to give him the scarf so he can get as much use out of it as possible this fall. also, i wanted to wear the weird tank top thing to a brunch we are going to while we are there. if i were better able to concentrate while knitting in public i would have been able to get it done. but at this point, i don't think it's going to happen.

not the knitting you know

2005-09-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

on friday i went to see an art exhibit entitled "not the knitting you know" at eleven eleven sculpture space in dc. i thought other knitters might be interested to see some of the pieces from the show.

the gallery is located in the lobby of a law firm, which caused quite a bit of controversy for the show. the strategically placed fig leaf on this work was added in response to an outcry from law firm employees against having nude crocheted figures displayed in their lobby. considering the kind of work that law firm does, i think they have a very twisted idea of what is "obscene." you can read about the controversy here.

the photo above is of a piece entitled "settlement with the monkeys" by ming-yi sung. it is made of crochet yarn, cotton and polyester stuffing, wire, and ceramic. the show featured several works by sung, all based on a theme of androgyny. she writes of her work: "Based on my personal mythology, there once existed a creature, Androgyny, who took the form of both sexes. As time went by, it lost some of its own physical identities and split into two separated sexes, as we are now. Somehow the soul within ourselves still holds the personality of both sexes. Through the presentation of my installation, I am continuing my investigation of my personal myth and creating a world of my own."

the piece on the right is entitled "audrey II," and it is by gayle roehm. you can't see it in this photo, but one of the tendrils on the right is holding a plastic chicken. the artist writes of this piece: "Remember the wonderful musical 'Little Shop of Horrors'? Audrey II is the mean, green mother from outer space who takes over the shop. I challenged myself to shape Audrey without relying on anything but stuffing, and I almost made it. In the end, I added a bent coat hanger to make her mouth stay open, and some florist wire around the edges of her leaves so they would curl menacingly. You can remove the stuffing from Audrey's flowerpot and wear her on your head -- if you dare."

i love it that roehm cites "laziness" and "contrariness" as influences of her knitting. she says: "There's laziness. I love to sit on the sofa, knitting and trying new ideas or techniques. I can sit for hours, messing with variations on an idea, so I don't have to get up and do housework. Then there's contrariness. Every time someone tells me, 'How nice, my grandmother used to do that,' it makes me so cranky that I want to knit a mean green mother from outer space. And who says knitting has to be flat? There's a real challenge in figuring out how best to deal with the fact that yarn is soft, and knitted items want to flop. I've reached an age when taking myself too seriously is no longer an option. From now on, I'm just having fun. Messing with yarn is the most fun thing I know."

the piece at the left particularly resonated with me as a vegan knitter. it is entitled "rabbit collar," and it is by blanka sperkova. it is made of zinc wire. there was also a companion piece in the show entitled "skunk collar." i hope it is visible in the photo that the "collar" is an entire rabbit -- head and ears and all -- knit in metal and ready to be draped around someone's neck. for me, the piece is both a condemnation and a tribute. on the one hand, it is a reminder of the grisliness of wearing a corpse around one's neck. on the other hand, it is a example of how knitting in alternative materials can create made objects that surpass the grisly traditional versions in beauty -- in my view, sperkova's delicate and glittering rabbit collar is much more lovely than a collar made of actual dead rabbit, and that beauty itself pays tribute to all the poor animals sacrificed in the production of traditional rabbit collars. i find it so inspiring because that is exactly what i try to do with my knitting: use alternative materials in a way that makes animal fibers obsolete.

if you'd like to see more from the show, here is a link to the gallery's website. however, now that the show is over, the gallery may change the website to reflect its current exhibits. now, i'm off to meet with my vegan knitting group!

vegan yarn stash

2005-09-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

these are my good yarns that i'm stoked to work with. my motivation in posting this is not only to ramble on about yarn, but i also hope this gives people an idea about some of the nicer vegan yarns available and helps demonstrate how vegan knitters don't have to feel deprived if they avoid using wool or silk.

this half finished scarf is one i'm making for my dad out of patagonia hand dyed nature cotton from chile. my dad asked for a ribbed scarf in multi-colored yarn. a traditional rib didn't look good (in my opinion) with the nubby texture, so instead i did a "faux rib" by alternating stripes of stockinette and reverse stockinette. so the pattern is: knit 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row, repeat.

i love the colors in this yarn, they remind me of the fall foliage in connecticut, where i grew up and my dad still lives. plus, it's sooo soft. i hope he likes it -- if not i'm going to steal it back because i love this scarf.

i also have 3 skeins of patagonia nature cotton in a different color (the green yarn below) that i haven't decided what to do with yet. i was considering making arm warmers out of it. any suggestions?

i got these two blue / grey / gold balls of andalusia lana gatto microfiber on sale from knit + stitch = bliss in bethesda. it has a very funky texture and i really like the combination of these colors together. i think i'm going to try to make a hat for myself out of it.

when i was in san francisco, i found the BEST yarn store -- it's called imagiknit. i wanted to buy half the yarns in the store. i found this beautiful yarn called "stylecraft linen look" on sale for less than $6 per skein (below). i bought all the skeins they had left, which was 3 skeins of the cream, 3 skeins of the plum, and one skein each of the blue, gold, and khaki. it is 65% acrylic, 17.5% linen, and 17.5 viscose, but i think it looks a lot like a linen/wool blend. it's very soft and elegant.

i was thinking of making a sweater with the cream and plum, making the torso out of one color and sleeves and ribbed neck out of the other, but i'm not sure if i have enough yarn for that? anyone have any suggestions? (each skein is 230 yards and the gauge is 4mm/USA 6 needles.)

i figure i can use the blue, gold and khaki to make small projects like ipod covers, or maybe a striped hat with two of the colors.

finally, my next project after my dad's scarf will be a baby hat for my future niece, who is expected in november. i have this beautiful pakucho undyed, organic cotton from peru that i bought especially to make this baby hat.

pakucho yarn is color grown, which means that the colors are the natural colors of the cotton fiber. i bought it in off white, but it also comes in greens, browns, and other color-grown colors. or, if you want to get really creative, you can buy the off white and hand-dye it yourself.

because the yarn is organic and color grown, it's good for the environment. it is also fair trade. i just love the idea that one of the first things "baby girl frey" will own is something that not only is pretty (hopefully!) and keeps her warm, but is also something that was made with care not only for her but also for the earth and for all the people whose labor went into making this beautiful yarn.

p.s. reading siel's and veganknitter's comments reminded me that i should mention that the yarns i have in my stash are just the tip of the iceberg of nice vegan yarns! another one i'm really looking forward to using is soy silk.

i've even heard that there's yarn made out of bananas! other bloggers have much more comprehensive information on vegan yarns, for instance check out fake sheep - that's where i first heard of the banana yarn.

learning to knit

2005-09-02T11:04:00.000-05:00

i thought i'd give some basic info on learning to knit, in case anyone stops by who is interested in taking it up.

although a friend in my dc vegan knitting group taught me how to do a basic knit stitch, i've primarily taught myself to knit using books and the internet. i was impressed how much free help is available on the internet - instructions on how to do a basic knit stitch, how to purl, various cast-on methods, make a buttonhole, translate knitting pattern-speak, pretty much anything you want to know you can find it online.

in addition to the internet, i used two books: the ubiquitous "stitch 'n bitch: the knitter's handbook," by debbie stoller, and "teen knitting club: chill out and knit some cool stuff," by jennifer wenger. (both are available from powell's books, see link in sidebar.) i have found both of them invaluable. stitch n' bitch is more comprehensive in its information, but teen knitting club breaks the basics down in a more easy-to-follow manner and has very simple patterns to get started with.

when starting your first project, use fat needles and VERY thick yarn that does not split easily. i didn't do this, and it made learning much harder. for my second project i made leg warmers with thick yarn and it was SOOO much easier to work with than the lion homespun i had used for my first project. also, thick yarn will knit up faster so you don't get bored taking 3 weeks to finish your first project. for the legwarmers i used lion jiffy and it was a great acrylic yarn for beginners.

i only used very inexpensive yarn for my first few projects, because i have a slow learning curve and didn't want to screw up some $12 a skein yarn. in fact, the project i'm working on now is the first one in which i've used a fancier yarn. (when i get a chance, i'm going to post some photos of my yarn stash. yum, yarn.)

i think a lot of knitters are anxious to "get to the good stuff," but i've actually been pretty surprised at how nice a lot of the cheaper non-animal yarns are. for as much as i love yarn, i'm not at all a yarn snob. which is good, because knitting is an expensive enough hobby as it is. if you are like me and you want to try to keep the costs down, the best place i've found for cheaper yarns, knitting needles, and other accessories is AC Moore.

if anyone is getting started knitting and wants some help, feel free to email me through my profile and i'll do my best. if nothing else, i can probably direct you to a website that will answer your question.

knitting on planes

2005-09-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

i know this is a big issue for knitters. when we went to hawaii i was very concerned that i be able to bring my knitting on the plane -- we had like 12 hours in the air each way!! but i'm happy to say that i had a very good experience. most of the long garter stitch scarf i knit for travis was knitted on the way to hawaii and back.

this is how i handled it: i made sure not to bring my yarn needle and i made sure i had rounded-end scissors, because pointy-ended scissors are not allowed on planes. i also made sure to bring bamboo rather than metal knitting needles because i figured they were less likely to attract attention. when i went through security i took the scissors out of my carry-on and put them in the little plastic tub with my shoes so it was easy for the security folks to inspect them. i went through security with no problem. i had no problem on board either. on one flight, the flight attendant asked that i not use the knitting needles during takeoff and landing so i complied and that wasn't really a problem. all and all, i had a very good experience and i'm SOOOOOO glad i had my knitting with me on the flights. being able to knit made the time just fly by. i would never want to be on a really long flight without my knitting. hmm, unless i could play video games instead. that's probably the only other thing that makes time fly by for me like knitting does.

long striped scarf

2005-09-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

i designed this scarf to suit travis. he wanted a really long, striped scarf with several different colors. he said he didn't want ribs or anything -- he wanted the stitches to be very plain. i wanted the scarf to be durable and washable because hopefully he'll be wearing it all the time in the winters.

this scarf is over 5 feet long, so it took a while to knit, even though it's just a basic garter stitch. it's made of 5 different colors of red heart supersaver so it is a very inexpensive scarf to make despite the length (i probably used about $5 worth of yarn at most). i would have loved to knit him a scarf in organic, hand-dyed cotton or bamboo, but then the scarf would have cost like $75 dollars and wouldn't be as durable for constant use and repeated cleaning. i know it's not hip but sometimes cheap acrylics are the best choice.

one thing i learned while making this scarf is to make stripes with an even number of rows. each stripe here is 21 rows and this means that the stitches in the last row of each stripe section is actually made of two colors. what this ends up looking like is a thin contrasting line at the edge of each stripe section on the back of the scarf. it doesn't look bad, it actually kind of looks like it was intentionally done, but it means that the front and the back of the scarf aren't exactly the same, and that irritates me. (i'm the kind of person that likes everything to be even and symmetrical, not just in knitting but in real life.) it especially irritates me because i went to a lot of trouble to do a provisional cast-on so that both ends of the scarf would look the same - i don't like how cast-offs look different than cast-ons. oh well, it's all a learning process for me.

cell phone cover

2005-08-31T15:59:00.000-05:00

i think this is the project i'm most proud of so far, even though it was the quickest. it only took one evening to make. it's a cell phone cover for travis' motorola razr phone, knit out of red heart super saver yarn with 4 size 10 double pointed needles. the button came from my stash of those extra buttons that come attached to clothes when you buy them. do other people collect those too? i've accumulated quite a stash over the years and i'm glad that now i have something to use them for!

i'm really proud of the design for this, which i invented myself. it would work for making a cover for any very thin item, like an ipod mini. i knit the body in the round. when i calculated how many stitches to cast on, i made sure that the circumference would be a good deal smaller than the actual phone - i wanted the cover to have to stretch around the phone and fit snugly.

i knit in the round until the piece was as long as the phone. then i put 1/3 of the stitches (one double pointed needle's worth) on a stitch holder and cast off the rest. i continued knitting the flap in a stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row) until it was long enough and cast that off too. then i sewed the bottom seam shut, sewed on the button, and sewed on the contrasting brown stitching at the top. finally, i just looped a piece of brown yarn through a couple of stitches and made a knot for the button loop. that's it! easy schmeesy! the contrasting stitching really makes the piece sturdier and better fitting than it otherwise would be, and it looks really good too, if i do say so myself.

i am planning to make a full-sized ipod holder for my friend jon based on this design. hopefully it will work with a slightly thicker piece of equipment. i am going to try leaving a hole in the bottom center when i sew it up, so that he can plug the ipod in with the cover on, and also put a buttonhole in the top of the flap so he can plug his headphones in. i have to teach myself how to make a buttonhole, but that shouldn't be hard. we'll see how it works out!

fringed dropstitch scarf

2005-08-31T06:15:00.000-05:00

this is one of the first things i knitted. i used a dropstitch pattern where i knitted a row, double wrapped a row, then dropped every other stitch for a row and repeat. it's quite open and lacy-looking, i don't know if you can really see that well in the photo.

i used lion brand homespun yarn, and let me tell you that it is a bitch to work with. it splits and frays like crazy. i do not recommend beginner knitters use lion homespun.

as you can see in the photo, the fringe frayed almost instantly. i kind of like the effect although it sheds like crazy. but cory has two cats so she can deal with some shedding.

i made this for my friend cory because she saw me using this yarn and said how much she really loved this color. i thought the stretch and the texture of the yarn knit in a dropstitch would make a feminine but funky scarf that would be both decorative and cozy and just perfect for cory. i hope she likes it! i gave it to her in june so she hasn't had a chance to wear it yet.

welcome to my new knitting blog!

2005-08-31T06:01:00.000-05:00

i created this mostly so i can have a place to post and share photos of the stuff i knit, since i give most of it away. i also plan to ramble on about projects i'm working on and vegan yarn and knitting stores and stuff like that.

i just started knitting in the spring of 2005, and i'm definitely still a beginner. i've been a vegan for about 7 years so there was never any question in my mind that i'd use only non-animal yarns. i know knitters are very attached to their wool, but i love working with vegan yarns. each time i start a project i end up telling travis: "i love working with this yarn!"

i never would have suspected this about myself, but i have realized that i just love yarn. i think that's what i love most about knitting. it must be odd to people who aren't into knitting to say you love yarn.