boogaj

Flower Pincushion Challenge

The second Pincushion Challenge is coming to an end and last night I realized, in all the excitement, that I hadn't finished (or even started, truth be told) my pincushion!

Well, lately I've been reading Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts, so I guess that's what inspired me to get out the scraps from my latest quilt and start hacking away at them.  I really like how it turned out, although I still haven't mastered adding rick rack as a picot edging.  I suppose I should probably do the corners by hand, but I was in a bit of a rush as it was 10PM and all.

You still have until midnight to get those pincushions made!  If I can do it in less than an hour the night before the challenge ends, I know you can make one today!  I have confidence in you!

*** Update ***  Wow!  Lots of pincushion photos coming in today!  I can't wait to show you the gallery tomorrow!

BTT -- LOTR

Booking Through Thursday

 

1. Have you read Lord of the Rings?

   Heck yeah, see my books?
   

2. If so, how many times have you read it? Just once? Or so many you can't count?

   Not exactly sure how many time.  I've read them several times though over the last 25 years or so.
   

3. If not, why not? Not your cup of tea?

   N/A
   

4. And, while we're on the subject, did you see the Oscar-winning movie(s)? What did you think?

   Loved em!  Own em all on DVD and they are the only movies I personally own on DVD.  I think they are pretty much the only thing I've seen in the theater in the past 5-6 years too.
   

Kumihimo

For a while now Kumihimo has been on my list of crafts to try and last week I finally gave the folks at BraidersHand a call and ordered myself some supplies to get me started.  Let me just give a shout out to Janis at BraidersHand.   I didn't know her before I ordered from her and had bookmarked her site ages ago somehow, so when I called her up to order I didn't know what to expect.  I usually just like to place my order online and wait for it to arrive, but I'm really glad I gave her a call!  She was super friendly and really helped me out by suggesting exactly what I needed to get started (and what I didn't!) and also directed me to some cool links on other weaving and braiding things.  Thanks, Janis!

So, my order arrived yesterday and last night I already made my first braid:

It's just a simple little spiral made out of some DMC (the thread you use for cross stitch) that I had around the house.  The directions were very simple and I had no trouble getting started. 

There's a lot of info out there on braiding, so rather than throw it in with my podcast on weaving, I'm going to be putting together a whole show on kumihimo and other braiding techniques.  Any braiding tools & techniques you think I should look into?

Now what?

Well, over the weekend I finished Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (and really enjoyed it, but more on that in a bit) and now I'm left with the inevitable question -- now what? 

See, our house is filled with books, but I've probably ready about 95% of them and am uninterested in reading 4%, which leaves 1% (which believe me, is still quite a lot of books!!).  Usually I try to prepare by having the next book sitting on the nightstand right under the book I'm reading.  Then as soon as I finish one book, I pick up the next and read at least the first page of the new one. (Okay, i'm a little strange. . . )  This time I was caught off guard though.  See The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is over 600 pages long and I thought I'd be at it for at least another week or two, but I was a bit under the weather and spent a good portion of the last 4 days reading.

Now I need to go wander the house, looking at bookshelf after bookshelf, picking through piles of books. . . wondering what I'll read next.  I feel a little displaced without a book in progress!

Oh, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?  Much better than Kafka on the Shore (my thoughts on that one are here).  This is magical realism at it's best and I can see why Murakami has such fans now.  You may be put off by it's length, but there aren't an overwhelming number of characters or things going on, so it's a nice easy read.  And now that I've finished the book I've read some reviews.  The funny thing is -- many reviewers seem to have the problem with this book that I had with Kafka on the Shore.  I however, found the ending of this book to be satisfactory.  While all the ends are not tied up neatly, I rarely find that I want that in a book. 

Stitch-Cast on Introductory Weaving

Stitch-Cast Episode 8 -- Weaving is up.  I talk a bit about how to get started weaving without spending much money and I also talk about how a funeral inspired me to weave (weird, but true!)

So, go give it a listen and please let me know what you think!  I also want to know what shows you've liked in the past and what you want to hear more about in the future.

BTT -- Booking through Thursday (on Friday)

The Covers


Taped Together Spines

Booking Through Thursday

1. What is most battered book in your collection? The one with loose pages, tattered corners, and page edges so soft that there's not even a risk of paper cuts anymore?

   So I emailed Deb yesterday and I was telling her that I thought this was a great question, but I couldn't think of what my most tattered book was.  And I swear that as soon as I hit "send" I thought of exactly what it was!  The set of J.R.R. Tolkien books from my Dad. 

2. Why is this book so tattered? Is it that you love it so much that you've read it a zillion times? Is it a reference book you've used every day for the last seven years? Something your new puppy teethed on when you weren't looking?

   When I was little -- like maybe 8 or 9 (although it could have been earlier, this edition was published in 1973) -- my Dad actually used to read the Hobbit out loud to me.  I remember sitting on the couch and listening to the part with Gollum and being kinda scared.  Later I took the books for myself and have since read them all over and over.   

My Dad has since passed away and this is a fond memory since I inherited my love of reading from him.  Thanks to Deb for choosing this question!  I swear Deb and I were separated at birth.  I also have a totally battered copy (the same edition, no less!) of A Little Princess somewhere around here, although my favorite book by Frances Hodgson Burnett has always been The Secret Garden.  I can't wait until Maddie starts reading these!

Lesson in baking bread

I love making bread from scratch but it takes a lot of time and I hadn't done it in a while.  For a couple years (yes, years) I've had it in my mind that I wanted to come up with a recipe for monkey bread -- you know, the cinnamon bread that you usually make by cutting up refridgerated biscuit dough and rolling it in cinnamon sugar and throwing it in a pan to bake as a loaf.  Well, I wanted *real* bread -- not some nasty refridgerated biscuits.  So Maddie and I pulled out 5 or 6 of my baking cookbooks and scoured them for suitable recipes.

I finally settled on using the basic dinner roll dough from Essentials of Baking.  This is a Williams-Sonoma cookbook and I've had great luck in the past with the recipes I've made from many of their cookbooks, so I was hopeful. 

Maddie read the instructions and I mixed things up.  We left the dough to rise and Maddie checked on it after about 1 1/2 hours -- she was amazed!  I think she is at a good age for an introduction to the magic of yeast! 

Then came the improvisation.  I cut up the dough into about 30ish chunks and I dipped them in melted butter.  Then Maddie rolled them in cinnamon sugar -- maybe 1 tsp cinnamon to 2-3 Tbsp of sugar?  We had to refill the cinnamon sugar bowl a couple times during the process and thing got a little unscientific.  The whole loaf took 1/4 cup of melted butter though -- we didn't run out of that.

As Maddie coated them, she threw them into a bundt pan -- gotta love the classic bundt pan!  And then we left it to rise while the oven pre-heated (about 20 minutes).  Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes and once cool, turn out onto a pretty plate!

It is quite yummy and would actually be suitable as a coffee cake.  (I'm eating some as I drink my coffee right now!)  It's sweet and buttery and I'll definitely make it again.

Another Booga Bag sighting!

The Booga Bag is appearing in the August 2006 issue of Quick & Crafty Magazine -- a UK Crafty Mag.  I actually got an email from Sarah at the magazine over a month ago and hadn't heard anything since, so I wasn't sure if they decided to use the info that she asked me to send her or not.  But today I received a couple of copies of the magazine in my mailbox and there it was!

The magazine is really fun and if you see a copy, I would recommend picking it up.  I hadn't seen it before, but Sarah said that it is available at some of the larger bookstore chains in the US.  It's kind of fun because each project has an estimated completion time listed!  From quickly flipping through this issue I already saw a project that intrigued me -- transferring photos to china.  How cool is that?!?  The photos of the completed projects in the mag look incredible.  I may have to give that a try.

(Other projects in the mag -- knit handbag, cross-stitch, lots of cards, fimo clay, flower arranging, china painting, beading -- heck, there's a little of everything!)

Of Books and Potholders

I haven't been feeling all that well, so I haven't done a lot of crafting lately. I did start Maddie's second sock during some traveling to and from My Mother-in-law's this past weekend, but that's not very exciting, is it? So if you want to see something interesting, pop on over to Homeschooling Maddie and check out Maddie's adventures with dyeing and weaving on a potholder loom.

And if it's books that you are interested in, pop on over to Booga Talk to hear Pete and I talk about the books we are reading (me ~ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Pete ~ Sister Carrie), have read and want to read. We also have a book give away in the works. Check it out!

Cute online pattern!

I've been busy working and catching up on sleep, so I don't have any pictures for you. I do however have a link! Go on over to my little mochi and take a look at the Chibi Rabbit and Kitty pattern! Aren't they adorable?

A better day?

I'm hopeful!  The sister is just fine.  Apparently she rear ended someone.  (I called that one!)  And I did eventually get to shower and eat ice cream last night -- yeah!  The plumber has been here again this morning (Third time in two days!) and we think the problems are all fixed now.  (Fingers crossed!)  And on top of that, Pete is going to the place with all the fancy chocolate bars for lunch, so I get a treat tonight when he gets home. 

See, things are looking up!  Heck, it's not even raining anymore!

(Remember that Seinfeld episode -- about even Steven?  -- I swear that happens to me.  Weird, huh?  Maybe, I'll even get some good mail today!  Maybe my "magic yarn ball" that never arrived will appear. ) 

A bad day

Not an awful, or terrible day.  Just a bad day.  That's what I'm having. 

So, I've been mopping up filth over and over -- and I can't shower because the drain still isn't fixed and I'm still waiting for that plumber.  The rodder was here and he thinks there was a critter stuck in the main sewer line (ewwwwwwwwwwwww).  So that part is "taken care of" which is a good thing, I suppose.  (Ever the optimist, I am!)

I just really want a hot shower and to put on my jammies and get in bed.  Maybe with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. 

Oh yeah, and I called my mom and she casually mentioned that one of my sisters "totaled" her car.  She really glossed over this somehow, so I'm assuming my sister is okay.  I have Pete on the job -- he'll fill me in.  (He rides the train home from the city with one of my other sisters.) 

sigh. . .

Waiting for the plumber to call

Old houses. . . gotta love 'em. I was up at 5am because I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about the pipe in the basement that was flooding everytime we used the bathroom upstairs. Now technically this house has 2 1/2 bathrooms, but that's kind of a joke. It has one bathroom and a closet that was converted to a powder room as some point. Then there's this scary "bathroom" in the basement (which is tied in to the same pipe and thus rendered useless, anyway.)

So, last night after Maddie had her bath, Pete went down to the basement to clean the litter boxes and found a flood of bubbly water (hmmm. . . Maddie just had a bubble bath). It was almost 11pm by then -- too late to do anything but get a bad night's sleep :)

So I woke up bright and early (although it isn't very bright here -- it's quite rainy) and put in a call to my Mom's cousins who run the plumbing business that my grandfather used to run. Now I wait. I hope they check their answering machine soon. . .

Mug mat & a little sock!

I finished up my first weaving "project" -- a wildly colorful mug mat.  Two of them actually.  I gave one to Maddie (because I thought Pete wouldn't want one since they are rather psychedelic -- but when I did he looked at me and said, "I could use a mug mat."  Looks like I have my next project lined up!)  The mohair weft made for some super fuzzy edges that hides any edge problems I may have had.  I suppose beautiful edges will come with practice.

In the past few days I also finished up the first of Maddie's socks, so I feel like there's enough progress to warrant a photo:

Maddie picked out the yarn from my stash and she chose Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the color Uptown.  I only had one skein, so she helped me weigh and wind the hank into two smaller center pull balls of the same weight.  (See Maddie, you do need to use math in the real world -- I call these opportunities "school" -- ha ha)  I was a little nervous about having enough yarn now that her feet are really starting to grow (2 sizes in the last year!)  But I had plenty left after the first sock.

Other than that, I've been busy at work getting out orders for the Dorothy Bag Pattern and putting up the new winter Hero Arts stamps at my rubber stamp store.

If you are knitting the Dorothy Bag, please leave me a comment or send me an email!  I can't wait to see everyone's bags!

Ashford Knitter's Loom

Yesterday Theresa & I went out to The Fold to check out the spinning guild meeting and enjoyed a lovely day of spinning (more on that later.)  While I was there I spotted the Ashford Knitter's Loom!

Now, I'm planning to do a podcast about weaving so I'll talk a lot more about this fun toy, but I had to show it off a bit here.  First let me tell you that I had been lusting after one of these ever since I saw that Ashford had come out with them, but it was Syne Mitchell's endorsement on her last podcast (Weavecast -- check it out!) that put me over the edge.

At any rate. . . the first picture up top shows how I created the warp using the warping peg.  Then I warped up the loom:

And after that I was good to go and started weaving!  Just look what I did in one night after a long day of traveling out to Marengo, spinning all day and getting home rather tired.  I thought I might be too worn out to give it a try, but Pete encouraged me to go for it and in under an hour I had it all set up, warped up and was weaving!

I didn't use any special kind of "weaving" yarn -- just some stuff I had in the stash.  The warp is Sirdar Salsa DK (50% Merino / 50% Acrylic) and the weft if Plymouth Outback Mohair (70% Mohair, 26% Wool, 4% Nylon).  Here's a semi-close-up:

The first project that they have you start with is supposed to be a scarf, but I think I want to make this into a little bag and maybe a couple mug mats.  We'll see.  It's a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to lots more projects on my little rigid heddle loom!

Okay. . . now for the spinning part!  Yesterday I finally finished spinning up some very pretty 70% Chocolate Alpaca/30% Tussah Silk that I bought from Shadeyside Farm while at MS&W.  I'm hoping a good soak will take out the kinks, because I want to knit it up as a single.  Take a look at it on the niddy:

It's so shiny because of the silk, that it's a bit difficult to photograph.  I'll try to take a better picture once it's soaked.

Now I'm off to play with my loom some more!  Stitch-Cast is on hiatus this weekend I'm afraid. 

I got nothing. . .

I've been working on some socks for Maddie.  Last weekend, along with working on my quilt, learning PHP and the basics of databases, and spending a day out at the river, I also started to clean out the spare bedroom (aka the sewing room).  This involved going through Maddie's old clothes.  I discovered three pairs of socks I had knit for her when she was little(r) and she decided she needed a pair that fit her now.  I don't even have the first sock finished despite feverish knitting almost all day on the 4th (while sipping wine out by the river between boat rides -- quite relaxing!)

So. . . here's what's been interesting me:

• post after post after post -- oh look, she's gone and done another -- about button crafts at craftlog.  Added later I just looked at whipup and saw that Kathreen did a whole post on button crafts!  Yeah!
• Party Favor Ideas at Kiddley.  (Don't you just *love* Kiddley?!?!?)
• JapanesePod 101 for coversational Japanese and Hiragana Lessons too! 

And now I need to get back to work.  Too much fun last weekend has left me with a huge backlog and I want to go play this weekend.  Spinning at the Fold, don't cha know!

Sewing results (with some chocolate and a kitty on the side)

On Saturday I cut, pressed, sewed, pressed, sewed, pressed, sewed some more . . . you get the idea.  Pretty soon it was evening and I realized I hadn't eaten or anything!  (And had a terrible migraine to show for it -- yikes!)  But I did get a good start on my quilt. 

There was a minor set back when I realized that my strip cutting method was not as accurate as I hoped.  I can sew a lovely seam, but the cutting part freaks me out!  They always seem to gloss over that part in the books and classes and I still haven't figured out how to get it quite right.  So after Squaring up, my blocks were 1/4 in. smaller than I planned.  That's okay though, I'm designing the quilt, so it's not like I have to adjust things to fit a pattern. 

I have quite a few blocks finished.  And to tell the truth, I'm not sure how many I'm going to make.  I want to make this large enough for our queen size bed and there will be sashing between the blocks.  (You can see the original plans here.)  So I guess I should do some calculating.

In other news, Amy sent me a wonderful gift of chocolate! 

They are chocolate covered cacao nibs from Scharffen Berger Choclate.  As usual, I'll give a full review when I finish them -- all I'll say for now is that they are highly addictive.  Thanks, Amy!

And I leave you with a picture of Spike, who has been my constant companion this past weekend.  Here he is sleeping on the bottom shelf on the bookshelf in my office (yes, I actually cleaned off an entire shelf in my office!)

Book Update

I just realized that I hadn't given a book update in quite a while. So here goes. . .

I finished Plainsong by Kent Haruf and it was excellent! You may remember when I started reading it and gushed about how wonderful it was -- well, it continued to be wonderful and I can highly recommend it now. The simplicity of language and the wonderful way Haruf brings to mind an image allowed me to become fully immersed in the story.

The story itself is nothing extraordinary -- I think that's the whole point. It's about some people in a small town and the pressures and stresses on their lives. Really great writing. I hear that Eventide is another novel that visits these same characters, so I will have to check that one out too.

I also read Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter. I've talked about this book a bit during the last two episodes of Booga Talk. In the end I thought it was pretty good, but definitely no where near Clarke's best. If you like sci-fi at all, you need to read the Rama books!!! The first one is Rendezvous with Rama. I've read the whole series twice now and I'm sure I'll read them again.

What am I reading now?

The Wind up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I'm only a few pages into it and it's strange!

Big Plans

I've got a four day weekend laid out before me and I've got big plans.  We'll see how far that big ol' spool of thread takes me.