Category Archives: What’s going on?

Fleece Festivals, Beanstalks, and ZOMG I ruined my Shawl!!

I know I promised a post about Mother’s day, shawl WIP photos, tea and potholders. That’s not gonna happen. At least not yet. Haven’t started the potholders and probably won’t for a while yet. Tea’s not really that big a thing to talk about here so I’ll leave that out. It’s rained probably 10 of the last 11 days so I couldn’t get any decent shawl WIP pics(though I will discuss the shawl and why the pic didn’t happen the one day it was sunny), and Mother’s day was really uneventful. So there.

Let’s get this show started!

I did get a gift for Mother’s day from Littlest Beanlet though. She brought a little seed packet with some dried organic green peas, a little slotted planter box(kind of like what berries are sold in), and a little baggie of soil. I planted the peas that day and 11 days later we have this:

Progress!

I put in 5 peas but only 3 stalks have emerged. Remember, how with the other plants I tried last year I lamented my lack of full sun in the livingroom. This little plant has spent most of its time on my the windowsill in my son’s room, where there’s more sun. So far it’s been thriving somewhat. I’ve been thinking about getting more peas and taking another chance at growing something. It hasn’t been all that sunny the last week or so and yet this thing just grew like wild! It’s quite encouraging..

Speaking of lack of sun, that last time we had a nice warm day I set out with the hubby to the local Botanical Garden again. Just the two of us for a little date. We had a great time, despite learning that we’d missed the cherry blossoms and magnolias. Aww. But we had an awesome time exploring the new Azalea garden:

At the Azalea Garden

There was a guy there with his tripod taking pictures and I was wishing I’d brought mine so I could get a picture of both of us, but a kind lady offered to take the picture when she saw me taking solo pics of him. Thank you lady, wherever you are!

On the way out the garden I was hoping to get a spread-out shot of the shawl but I couldn’t. When I pulled out the work I noticed I’d left it with a few stitches left to that row and the needle had come out of the short side!! Ugh. I put the needle back in and then realized some of the stitches seemed to have been dropped down a bit. I spent maybe 10 minutes standing there trying to figure out how many I’d lost(remember lace means YOs and such, which complicates counting rows), and wound up having to give up because we were running late to get the Beanlets from school in time. So I never got the picture I wanted. And I was horrified at not being able to figure out where the stitches were dropped exactly without just ripping back a few rows. The lifeline was back by about 10 rows and had partially snaked out of the row so ripping back would have required going back 21 rows!!(I had the lines every 12 rows). I was so heartbroken I didn’t even touch the shawl for a few days. When I finally did pick it back up again and really counted the row I discovered I’d screwed up the count somewhere and that I was initially correct in the number of stitches I’d first attempted to pick up. Phew!

Between all the recent crazy going on in the media and the seemingly unending rainy days, I was glad to get out of the house for a little sun and warmth with the Beanfamily. The Prospect Park Zoo was holding its annual Fleece Festival and since I’d missed every one of them since I’d first heard about it several years ago, I packed up everybody and we headed thataway. There were some tables hosting spinning and felting demos, as well as small weaving looms. Boy Beanlet took to the loom like a moth to a light:

I've rubbed off...
He did NOT want to leave! In the back of my mind I was thinking, “Hmm.. Maybe I can get a small loom if I tell hubby Boy Beanlet wants it, instead of me…”. Bad LadyBean! ;)

During the festival, there was to be two sheep shearing events and I got to take pictures and video of one of them! Yay!:

Cotswold Sheep pre-shearing

That cutie wasn’t too thrilled once she realized what was going to happen, but eventually she calmed down and took it like a trooper! Click through the photo to get to a video of the shearing! (approx. 6 min. long)

It was a glorious day and I’m glad I got to spend it with the people I love the most. :)

Stay tuned for more crafty fun!

TTFN!

As Usual, Random

That’s where my head’s been lately: just all over the place! And would you believe I actually sewed something? *gasp*

makeup pouch outside up

I’ve recently been getting back into ‘putting on’ my face. I’ve never been fond of foundation but I like shadow and lipsticks. What better way to carry them around than in a new makeup case?

It’s a simple, 3D-style zippered pouch and it was a snap(after I had to rip out a bad zipper choice, and undo a seaming mistake). I apparently also need to keep design placement in mind, because the butterflies are upside down. O.O

I adore the look of brocade but geez it unraveled like nobody’s business! I don’t know if it’s the quality of this low priced fabric or if brocades just do that sort of thing but was annoying. It’s a wonder there was anything left to sew. But sew I did and I’m very pleased, with the result and the pattern. I can see myself making this again, especially since the girl Beanlets whined that they wanted one too. ;)

In other crafty news the girls and I(well, mostly I) made up some pretty hollow yarn balls: Yarnballs with glitter

I tried to get cute with it and added some glitter to the glue mixture. Waste. Of. Time. You can’t even SEE the glitter. I debated getting glue that had glitter IN it already but wondered how well that would mix with the water. Though I suspect the result might have been the same: no visible glitter.

It was a mess but fun and I’d do it again if I had any real use for them. I made 9 or 10 of them and they turned out a bit bigger than they appear in the tutorial. No matter how small I tried to blow up the balloons, they only started looking round once they got too big. Sigh. Maybe it would have worked out if I used better quality(and more expensive!) balloons, but I just couldn’t see that when I would only be popping them to get them loose from the yarn when the balls were dry.

In photography(you knew that was coming, didn’t you?), I’ve been venturing out more little by little. Still trying to decide if there’s any other kind of photography I can really get into besides the macro stuff. I do like street photography, I’m just really shy and I know how people get when strangers point cameras at them. As a NYer I might know the difference between some random person snapping me because I look like a photo of me(or what I’m doing) might get them an A on their project, and when they’re watching me because they’re a perv. But not everyone does so… yeah.

I’d been wracking my brain trying to think of convenient, non-wallet-emptying places to get a good shot for a simulated tilt-shift miniature. I say simulated because the appropriate lens setup to do a REAL one would make a grown man cry. Well, at least a grown man who couldn’t afford such a lens. A few shots and Photoshop Elements tweaks later and:

'Mini' Seaport--level 2 at the mall

Not perfect but it’s a start. I need to get out more and get better at judging angles and all that good stuff. In the meantime, I leave you with this beauty:

Cheap, but pretty

TTFN!

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!

Red and White Galore! and other things

That’s what I saw when I entered the Park Avenue Armory to visit the “Infinite Variety:Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts” exhibit today. Red is my favorite color, so I couldn’t resist this feast for the eyes.

The exhibit displayed 650 of 1000 red and white quilts owned by a philanthropist named Joanna S. Rose, who’d collected them over a number of years. In fact, most of the quilts are older than SHE is. But they all looked to be in pretty good shape. All sorts of designs trussed up in the air, floating around like a deck of cards a la “Alice in Wonderland”. There was NO way I could get a picture of all of them and still get home in time for the Beanlets so I got what pictures I could and just generally enjoyed the vibe of the event.

Four leaf clover

Click through to see all the photos.

Sigh, I keep saying I’m going to do more quilting but chicken out. I already know I’m not going to do anything larger than a baby/lap quilt so at least I’m not setting myself up for total failure. However, I do need to get on the ball, and soon. Lately I’ve just been in a serious funk with a lot of personal stuff going on that I can’t go into here but which plague me nonetheless. I’ll get it together at some point..

I haven’t done much of any crafting. I look at the WIPs and they jeer at me and I look away. A shawl unfinished here, a sweater half done there.. a sock, alone and seeking its mate. Blah, all I want to do is take pictures. And then I hadn’t been doing much of that either, save the usual cat-and-or-kid photos. There’s still a lot of learning to do with this new hobby. I’ll get that yet.

In the meantime, here’s a some geese for you:

Three Geese

TTFN!

Distracted/Cranky

I swear I’ve been knitting. But rather sparingly, I’m afraid. Between being distracted by the SHINY! of a new dSLR and or not being up to knitting in public, I haven’t been getting a heck of a lot done.

Start of a sock

This is the start of the Java socks. I’ve been nursing this for a few weeks now. These are on some pretty delicate DPNs–0s. I didn’t want to risk dropping these on the multiple bus/subway trips I’ve had to do in recent weeks. I don’t know where my 0s circs are, and for this particular pattern I’m thinking they’d be best done on 3 needles instead of 4. I just like to have even numbers of stitches on the needles whenever possible.

Why don’t I like knitting in public lately, you might ask? It just seems that when I get in a good groove somebody wants to BUG ME about what I’m knitting(and they’re not knitters themselves, mind you) or make some useless comment such as “That looks hard! Is it hard?”. No, what’s hard is me trying not to stab you in your eye with my needles. I’m not usually this anti-social when it comes to crafting but I just prefer to be alone in my thoughts so I don’t fark up and have to tink. With Java being a not-your-everyday sock I’m definitely going to have to leave the project at home if I want to finish it with minimal screw-ups.

Which leads me to Panta.

Pic-a-Day2011-12/3-- Panta

I knit one of these a few years ago and misplaced it. Now, I like hats and such, but the tams/berets I’ve knit or crocheted are either too tight or too loose. I really don’t care about having my entire head covered so much as making sure my ears are covered. So a Panta is probably my best bet. And they’re so quick I could make several in a few different colors in the time it would take to make one hat. Which, considering how much I’ve been knitting lately.. yeah. ;)

TTFN

Ooh I’ve been bad.

Instead of knitting, sewing, crocheting and getting the next podcast episode together I’ve been playing with my new toy:

ISO test

No, I didn’t get a new cat; that’s Cookie. What you’re looking at is the difference in photographs taken with my new dSLR. ;) An Early V-day gift from Mr. Beanknits. (Shamelessly I’m working on him for our Anniversary or Mother’s Day.) Coughlenseshackingcoughexternalflashcough.

So far I only have the kit lens that came with the camera but it’s working out really well. I kept wanting to improve the quality and have more control over my photographs. I know, I know, some crafters out there get great photos with their point-and-shoots. My long-standing desire to ‘go there’ with my photography, coupled with hubby’s frequently wanting to take the P&S with him made me go ahead and get a dSLR. That and a nice sale. ;)

There’s a deep learning curve with this type of camera but I’m up for it. One exposure at a time. Can’t wait to snap some ‘real’ pics of WIPs and FOs. I just have to get used to the lens cap:

There's always one of these...

Oopsie!

TTFN

Guess what?!

Episode 21 of BeanKnits and Spins is LIVE! Just a quick recap of what’s been going on since Episode 20 and some new info too! (A short video will play if you’re listening on-site.) It may take a day or so for the episode to show in Search in iTunes but if you subscribe to the feed you will be able to get today’s episode.

And, because I just remembered this, check out this neat way to join granny squares! Thank you, Theresa for sharing this! Unfortunately the squares I need to assemble are not traditional grannies, but I’ll manage, even if it means crocheting an additional row around them so I’d have something to join to. ;) Now, just to find some Caron Simply Soft in Black.

TTFN!

Just Doing It.

That is kind of how I feel about my latest craft projects. Other than baking for special occasions I’ve been contemplating practicing my baking a little more. I’ve always farked up whole wheat bread. It was always hard, and flat. Nothing I tried worked. But recently I read something about “vital wheat gluten”, which is supposed to help wheat breads rise better. I’ve yet to actually try it but hopefully sometime this weekend I’ll get around to it.

I did manage to make some banana bread, though:
Banana Banana Bread

from this recipe.

I’m thinking I should have added that 4th banana in there. Some of the reviews do indicate that extra banana would improve the moisture but I didn’t listen. Or perhaps the addition of baking powder may have something to do with it. In previous incarnations, with a different recipe the bread was always kind of flat and that one didn’t call for baking powder either, so I figured that was the problem. This loaf is somewhat taller but not by much(I’m starting to think other people are using a smaller pan than my 9×5′er, which could mean nothing I do will yield a taller result). Oh well, it’s still very good, even if a little on the dry side. Nothing a hot cup of coffee or tea or a glass of cold milk won’t fix.

In knitting I’m also slowly starting up. Oh I’ve knit the occasional hat or mittens or some other whimsy but one of the things I’ve been wanting to knit more of is sweaters for ME. Sadly, though, I’ve been quite reluctant to do so because of the four disasters in my knitting past: namely, the felting of my Cheesylove pullover, the shrinking of my beloved Central Park Hoodie by my MIL, and the fact that I ran seriously short of yarn for the handspun Heather Hoodie. Not to mention, the failure of kiddo’s Basic Black.

Eileen back

Enter Eileen. I just decided to jump in and do it. Of course the decision was facilitated by a sale at Michaels. ;) I went with a bold color that I love and so far the knitting is going ok. I was a little uneasy with the shifting charts; if you look at the back photo you’ll notice there is a center panel and two side panels. The side panel chart only has 6 rows but the center one has 8. The first repeat of the two charts started out with the same rows, only to have me start the side panel chart AGAIN before finishing the first repeat of the center panel. And there I was thinking I’d print the charts on the same sheet of paper and use one long strip of highlighter tape to track the rows. Sigh. Oh well. I guess I could still print them together since they’re small. But it hasn’t been a major hassle yet.

Now, while I did enhance my stash for this project I have been working from stash I already had.

Crochet Box

I had 3 balls of Lamb’s Pride Bulky laying around, seemingly forever, and decided now was the time. The other day I just started crocheting these rectangles, not even knowing what I’d do with them. I just needed to be doing something with my hands. My son came in the room and asked if I was making a box. I looked at the panels and just decided, yeah, I’m gonna make a box. And I did!

I’ve read that crochet is harder to felt than knitting and I’m seeing this may very well be true. I would have thought with the yarn being a single ply that it would felt lovely but, the crochet won out. You can still see some of the stitch definition. Also the finished item isn’t as sturdy as knit felt would be. There’s no way that box would stand up to the spindles, but this is even floppier than normal; everything is actually sitting in a hard plastic bucket the kids got a few Halloween’s ago. Eh, it works, right?

I hear Eileen calling so I’d better go see what she wants.

TTFN!

Slow Start

Distractions
Sewing ‘Room’
But a start nonetheless. It’s taken me longer than I’d hoped to get my sewing space just the way I want it. I decided and then changed my mind about painting the walls. I have yet to finish the table. I’d also like a pegboard to go on the wall so I can store my thread on it. Nothing too big, but something that holds more than my current thread holder can accomodate.

What was I thinking?

Today was a rough start too. Wound up scrapping a project. I’ve been thinking about making myself a shower cap since last year when I bought one in the store, and the damn thing wouldn’t fit over my locs. I need one of those jumbo ones. I said, “Hell, with some vinyl I can MAKE one!”, and hit Joann’s to find some vinyl. Well today was the day to finally do it. I traced a circle using my biggest pizza pan and cut it out. OMG the disaster that ensued. Let’s just say it led to much cussing and mumbling. I think the vinyl was too thick and trying to sew a straight casing on a curved item is well, crazymaking. The safety pin I used to feed the elastic through got irreversibly stuck and I just chucked the whole thing in the trashbin. Got dammit. RiteAid, here I come.

Knitting/Yarn

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. I haven’t ripped Basic Black yet. I’m gonna. But I’m consumed by a sick urge to purchase more allotments of sweater-quantities of yarn. It’ll pass. In the meantime I’ve been eyeing Bartlett Yarns(Thanks Val!) but I keep forgetting to call them and ask what kind of shipping carrier they use. If it’s UPS, forget it! I’d spin a sweater’s worth again, but that Heather Hoodie debacle has me sort of gun-shy right now. I’m thinking next time I’ll only use two plies so I can yield more yardage and not run out.

Podcasting

Yes, you read that right. I’ve got a bunch of things to say and I don’t want to bore you all with endless posts. So I’m thinking about a way to incorporate podcasting back into my ‘net life. I found a new podcasting host but can’t seem to get my old RSS feed moved over to it, so I’m gonna start fresh. And of course, it’ll be, Adrift in Crafts. Link coming soon.

That’s about it for now. Just breezin’ through.

TTFN!

Revving Up

For a new year. There’s a lot I could say right now but I’ll hold off til the next post.

Just wanted to say Hi! And that there’s a new weblog challenge going on right now with WordPress. The challenges are to either post once a week or once a day. It’s Saturday and well, I’m not ready to put up a REAL post just yet, but I didn’t want to miss out on fullfilling this challenge, so here’s my post for the first week of 2011. :p

TTFN!