Category Archives: New Stuff

No Snark Today, Just Spinning (NaBloPoMo day 3)

So. I thought about ranting about all the crazy surrounding Hurricane Sandy and a lot of people’s ^%$%#’d up comments surrounding it, but  I’m certain that conversation will have been beaten like a dead horse by countless others, and I really don’t have anything new to add to it. So, spinning.

I got my first Turkish spindle back in 2008 at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. Though I do prefer using a wheel I do from time to time just want to spindle. When I learned that Turkish spindles produce an automatic center-pull ball I just had to have one. I got that first one from Fessler Spinning and Weaving and have spindled almost exclusively with it.

Earlier this year, however, I noted how small the spokes were and how I couldn’t really get a whole 4 oz. of fiber onto it. Having seen other Turkish spindles with much longer spokes, I set my mind on getting a new one. One of my awesome VKC ladies told me about a wood worker who she convinced to make spindles, and before I knew it, I’d received one. I’ve been spinning with it the last couple days and I’m really enjoying it. It’s very lightweight, spins real fast, and with 5.5 inch spokes I’m sure I could about 4-5 oz. of fiber on it in one go.

Right now, I’m testing it with some merino dyed by yet another VKC chat buddy. You can’t really see it(perhaps I should have photographed the thing before I put fiber on it?) but one of the spokes has a deep pocket where the other spoke slides through it. I was told I might have a bit of trouble getting the singles/yarn off the thicker spoke, and with a tiny sample I did. I’m thinking now, though I might not have any issues with it.

With tons of fiber to spin, especially for larger quantities, the wheel is my go-to method. But after not having spun it for a while, I spent a few hours treadling like mad and wound up sore in the glutes like you wouldn’t believe. So, spindling is the order of the weekend for BeanKnits.

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend. What crafts are you up to?

TTFN!

Hookin’ Again( Or, Yay, Crochet!)

I started out crocheting years ago, as a child. I picked it up again as a young adult but by my third child I was ready for something new, so I learned to knit..

Over the years I kept seeing those long crochet hooks or sometimes double-ended ones and didn’t know what they were for. Right before I learned to knit I dabbled in what is called Tunisian(or Afghan) crochet and it was ok, but I didn’t quite get it that first time around.

Fast forward to 2012 where I met some lovely ladies in a G+ Hangout and re-learned the process. I’ve since cast on for a Red Scarf project submission but I put it down because the hook was just too fiddly and too small for the yarn I am using.

Just last week I purchased a larger, flexible, double-ended crochet hook and I will restart the scarf. But in the meantime I’ve started a cute little dishcloth, a la a pattern from Jennifer Hansen, on Craftsy.com (The course in which the pattern appears is $29.99–check it out!)

The smaller, stiff hook I was using for the scarf would probably go better with this Sugar N Cream yarn but I’m going to keep on keepin’ on until I finish. The next one will get the smaller hook, so that I can free this one up for the scarf. ;)

What’ve I been up to?

Tunisian Dishcloth(Craftsy.com class)–:

Tunisian Dishcloth

Honey Badger Socks(Ravelry link)– Made in scrumptious Shalimar Yarns ‘Breathless’ in colorway ‘Sedge’:
Honey Badger Socks Honey Badger Socks close-up

Cotton Granny Square Apron(two separate links)–:

Granny Square Apron

This apron is actually a mixture of two ‘patterns’. The square featured is not in the original apron concept pattern, but I figured any square would work.

 

I’ve since finished the Sari Lace Triangle and all that needs blocking is the corners. Yeah. It’s so big I couldn’t fit it all on a queen-sized bed.

 

Maybe if I’m lucky, after these, I’ll catch a bout of finish-itis and clean up my WIPs. One can dream, right? ;)

 

What are you working on?

 

 

Proof of Knitting….

Not quite proof of life but it’ll do. ;)

52/365--Back to Basics

With winter coming I had to get on the move with some new handknit accessories. You need something around your neck in these cold Northeast winters but I got tired of arranging and rearranging scarves. Cowl time! I just wanted something simple to start with, something I could use up some leftover KP yarns. I got 4 wildly different colors of Palette together and just ran them one behind the other.

I hit a roadblock with the way the top droops and I’m going to fix that before I show a FO picture.

I’ve also been putting some inches on the sleeves of Eileen, after pinning together the body to get a better sense of how I’m going to work the sleeves. Thanx to a very kind and smart knitter I learned the sleeves would have turned out WAY too big so I ripped and restarted. They’re almost to the arm caps as I type this.

55/365--Eileen WIP

I’ve also got a scarf and hat set going for Littlest Beanlet. They’re being done in undyed wool, so I’m going to dye them all at once when they’re done. I’ll see what color is her favorite this month. ;)

TTFN!

Updates

My mind’s still a bit frazzled from the mini-earthquake/Hurricane Irene occurrences of the last week so I’m just going to do an update post, hold the humor.

Sewing:

Instead of making another sleep mask I decided to try my luck at making a camera strap cover.

Camera strap cover!

Nice and simple. In hindsight I probably should have padded it and spent the time to press the seams open so you don’t get that divot along the seamlines. All in all, it was a quick sew and I’m looking forward to making more strap covers with padding.

Knitting:

I’m almost done with one of the fronts for Eileen, but I got sidetracked by some bus knitting. I’d made a few trips around town last week and needed something portable to work on. I still haven’t memorized the chart for Eileen so I took some sock yarn and cast on. In just a few days I’ve already passed the heel on the one I started. I’ll probably go back to Eileen before I cast on the mate.

Cooking:

First Carrot Cake

I made carrot cake! Yay! Well, maybe. It was fun to make and the cream cheese icing was easy and delicious but the cake itself, well. It was OK, but not as moist as I’d have liked. I might have over-baked it because with a cup of oil and 4! eggs, it shouldn’t have been so dry. Oh well. The Beanlets like it so that’s all that matters, right? ;)

There was also a first attempt at making my own corn tortilla chips:

Homemade Tortilla chips and Salsa

Those didn’t go over well at all. I don’t know where I went wrong, so I just gave up and bought a bag from the store. The salsa, though? Awesome! It was originally supposed to be tomato sauce and I jumbled up the processing steps and it came out too chunky to be ‘sauce’. I am now planning to try and make this mistake again on purpose to get more salsa. It’s a hit!

Here’s what I remember doing:
I blanched 6lbs of plum and regular tomatoes to get the skins off
Chopped and boiled them down for about 20 minutes, then added a large white onion and large green pepper, both chopped up into about 3/4inch pieces.

Boiled that down about 10 min more to soften the pepper and onion, and added about a teaspoon of seasoning salt.

Then, in batches I pureed the mixture to what was a salsa-y texture. I stopped at that texture because the mixture was hot and somehow spilling out of the food processor. That’s when I just said “F it!” and jarred it all up and did the heat seal thing.

I SHOULD have pureed the tomatoes alone to get the sauce texture I was aiming for. I actually followed a recipe for that which is probably why I got it right the first time. Oh well, learn something every day!

Photography:

I’m currently working on putting my current photography themed posts and any future posts onto a separate blog. Stay tuned for the launch! :)

TTFN

Canned!

I promise I have not accumulated yet another hobby. Canning isn’t so much a hobby as it is a life skill. I’ve wanted to can for quite some time and after falling headlong into farmers’ markets(now that could become a hobby!), and seeing such great deals on fresh produce, I decided it was time to try my hand at it.

What started out as this(sans peppers, they are for something else):

Almost ready...

Is now this:

Tomato-Basil Sauce

And this:

Pickles!

Let’s talk about what I’ve learned, shall we?

I’ve learned that only certain produce can be canned in a waterbath, and since I’m a chicken I won’t be getting a pressure canner for a while, so that means I’m limited to things like tomatoes, pickles, and certain fruits. But that didn’t stop me from jumping in ‘half-hog’.

The tomato sauce is orange because I didn’t remove the skins before pureeing them. Oops. I actually had read about blanching them and placing them in ice water to get the skins to just slide right off but I wound up following a different recipe which called for straining after pureeing. Which of course didn’t work, so there are bits of skin in there. No biggie. I was also advised to just keep letting it boil down for it to turn red, but then I probably would have been left with a spoonful, since I only started with 9 tomatoes which resulted in just the two jars. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to tasting it, but based on the overall consistency I might be better off calling it a soup rather than a sauce. Oh well, live and learn.

Now on to the pickles. Who doesn’t love pickles!? Well, other than Mr. BeanKnit.. ;) But I adore them. Once I got into trolling browsing the various local farmers’ markets, I realized what great deals there are to be had and decided I could save money by canning my own pickles. For a little less than the price of a commercially made jar(at least where I live), I could get 4 times as much! So I picked up 6 lbs of kirby cucumbers and got started. It was much simpler than the tomato soup/sauce and I even had a few extra spears to make refrigerator pickles. I knew I should have gotten that 5th jar! ;) I have to wait a few weeks for the flavors to really kick in, and that’s going to be the hardest part, perhaps.

I also learned there is some truth to the old adage, “A watched pot never boils.”. This is especially true when prepping a 21-qt canning pot. Between traveling to the markets and the canning process itself, I was able to get in some knitting. I put some serious rows on the toe-up socks I’ve been working on, but I’m almost done, so look for an FO shot in the next post, as well as a finished Eileen back.

TTFN!

Random Goings-On

There’s been bunch of activity here in the Bean household concerning crafts and food. Well, there’s always food but recently I made a conscious decision to get more vegetables into my diet, come hell or high water. I finally hit up the Greenmarket at Union Square yesterday and I had a ball! There were many vendors selling all manner of edible goodness, some pricy(like heirloom tomatoes at $4.75/lb), and some just right(various squash at $1.00/lb). It was dizzying to say the least, but I can’t wait to go back! ;)

Farmer's Market Goodies

Clockwise: Yellow Summer Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Basil and Yellow Onions.

These ingredients made up part of the Easy Cheesy Zucchini Bake I made for dinner tonight.

Easy Cheesy Zucchini Bake
I’d left out the other cheeses called for in this recipe because I forget to purchase them. Next time, they will be added. It’s really yummy, though the Beanlets weren’t too thrilled. Too bad, they’re not the ones cooking. ;) There’s still one yellow and one green squash left. Not sure what to do with them. Refrigerator pickles may be in order.

As for yarn craft, the Eileen sweater got picked back up again during a fun evening of chatting with some knit buddies on G+. I forced myself to get over my fear of knitting the shoulders(I’ve had this fear since I first started knitting sweaters in pieces), and just did it. I’m not actually at the shoulder decreases yet, but I’m no longer scared of them.. There was a brief moment of “Noooooo” when I couldn’t figure out what was happening last, even though the chart is marked. I solved that and it was party time!

Eileen progress

Now, I’m looking forward to starting the next sweater.

There’s been some other crafty FO’s too, but that’s the next post.

TTFN!

30/30

Day 30--Self-portrait
This is my last photo in the 30-day Photo Challenge for June 2011. I hear tell there will be one for July but I won’t be entering that one. I’m still debating if I have the stamina to even do any sort of photo-a-day projects. I’m torn between feeling like I need to always be out-of-doors and trying to open up my home life more. And I’m not sure I’d like to do the latter. Plus with the Beanlets around the place isn’t always spiffy and photo-ready. ;)

I’ve been knitting off and on through this time. I’ve been busy on Pinterest, seeing lots of things I’d love to make; sewing and yarn-craft alike. The latest item to pique my interest is Mao, a cute little one-piece knitted toy cat. Mao is designed by blogging-multi-crafter OiYi. I have to admit that most of my unwillingness to knit toys was because they usually involved knitting a bunch of separate parts you would then have to seam together. This is done in one big section(just add the tail–no biggie), and you stitch on facial features with embroidery thread or thin yarn. Easy peasy. Mr BeanKnit has a few new 3rd(4th?) cousins coming soon and so I’ll definitely have little ones to give them too. Several weeks ago I bought a bunch of cotton yarn at Michaels for some potholders but those will have to go on hold while I make some Maos.

I haven’t done much sewing other than fixing a ripped seam or three but I am gonna have to dig in my heels and get to sewing because my wardrobe is woefully skimpy these days. I usually dress in layers during the colder months but since it’s warmer(read: hot!) now, all I need is one layer per section and I’m good to go! I’m not ready to tackle pants. I can’t bring myself to do it and I’d prefer more skirts. I’ve been loving the jeans skirt to death because of the built-in pockets but I will have to bite the bullet and add some pockets to the skirts I plan to make.

Well, just touching bases to let you know I’m still kicking! TTFN!

30-day Photography Challenge–First Day: Self-portrait

Yes, the blog is sort of turning into a photo blog. Trust me, I’m still knitting. See?

Day 1-- Self-portrait

Still working on the Multnomah Shawl I started I-don’t-remember-how-long ago. I figure it’ll be done by Thanksgiving 2012 at this rate. :)

Now, back to the challenge. I’ve taken on a 30-day Photography Challenge based on this page I found through Pinterest.

I’ve been sputtering along trying to understand and learn photography and so far it’s been fun. But something was missing. I don’t have the time-freedom to take classes and all my photography-loving friends are on a different schedule than I am so it’s very hard to hang out with them when they’re in the mood for photowalks. So I’ve been winging it on my own, Bean-style. (Every craft I do now was learned by books or photos/video online. I’m a visual learner, more than anything else.)

Enter the photo challenges. Back when I first got my dSLR I made up my own version of a “Project 365″ which didn’t last a month. Oops. Maybe I needed a daily topic/theme to get me on track and keep me there. So here we are.

A ‘Green Monster’ has taken over me

"Green Monster" smoothie

That one up there. It’s a Green Monster smoothie. I make mine with baby spinach, frozen banana, strawberries and almond milk, and I love it to death. I’ve been hearing about it from Necia for months and I finally got around to trying it. It’s so good, the kids line up when they hear the blender going. And yes, I can use my trusty blender and not have to worry about some fancy-shmancy smoothie maker. Yay. It’s filling enough (for me at least) to replace breakfast so I’ve been trying to stay on schedule with a light lunch and dinner with a snack every now and then. I’m gonna need some healthy energy what with all the excitement at Chez BeanKnit lately.

First off, over the weekend we had not 1 but TWO small floods. Yuck. I’d gone out with some of the Beanlets to the NY Botanical Garden again and did a little walking around before some very necessary retail therapy(when will they stop GROWING!?). Came home to prepare dinner and relax and little one comes in my room to tell me there’s water all over. I step out of bed INTO water. Nice. It wasn’t too bad thankfully, but I wasn’t planning on spending the day cleaning up. Then the next day the washer sink overflowed and I had to clean that up too, but that one was sheer STOOPID on my part. Whoops.

Between all that my beloved DIY craft table fell apart on me. Literally. I have the bruise to match it but I’m not showing my thighs this trip around. I will show you the damage though.

DIY table go boom!

I assure you all that stuff was NOT sitting on one end of the table. I had to get a replacement and while I appreciate the sturdiness of it, I’m a little sad that it’s not as wide as I’d have liked. The DIY was 36″ and this one is only 30″:

New table!

Well, at least it’s already finished and waterproof! :) Silver lining and all that.

So that’s what’s been going on these past few days. I think I hear a Green Monster calling me. TTFN!