SP5 goodies

Yesterday I received a package from my secret pal. I found the package on the way to lunch at Amalfi's so I took the box with me. I tried to open it on the way there, but I found walking and opening packages is not one of my many talents. I ended up opening it up at the restaurant and going through all of the goodies there. She sent me a mango/papaya candle which made the entire package smell delightful. There were also five skeins of yarn: one soft beige acrylic, a burgundy blended yarn that is incredibly soft, some blue sock yarn (I really need to make some socks now!), and two skeins of turquoise and brown mercerized cotton. I have no idea what I am going to do with all of this yarn, but it will be fun looking for more small projects. In addition to the yarn and the candle she sent some beautiful stitch maker and a basket to store it in. I really like the basket, it is perfect for gifts. I hope she won't mind if I modify the design for Christmas presents.

Another highlight of the day was my trip to the Atomic Lounge. They have decided to close their physical store and go exclusively online. This means that all of their merchandise is 40% off right now and will get cheaper and cheaper for the next four weeks. I bought a picture of the last supper that lights up, a CD for Philip and a vintage Jell-O cookbook that I will use with my stash of KoJel. They still have the kitchen cabinet that I have been drooling over since they opened, but I am not sure that I should make that kind of purchase right before I move since I have no idea what my new kitchen will look like. It is a really tough call, but I have four weeks to decide.

Niddy my Noddy

I completely frogged the grey Goodwill sweater I bought last week and I ended up with 3 balls of yarn that I needed to skein for dyeing. I have been thinking about buying a niddy noddy, but the adjustable niddy noddies run around $50 and I am not comfortable committing to just one size so I needed an inexpensive way to make an adjustable model to measure and skein the yarn that I want to dye. I started by looking at dowel rods, but ended up in the plumbing section with the PVC piping and the huge selection of connectors. For under $3 I got everything I needed for my niddy noddy, plus I can adjust the skein length to coordinate with my needs.

First, you will need .5" piping (FYI- PVC piping is measured by the internal opening size, not the pipe width.) PVC piping is often sold in 10' sections so you will need to find someone to cut it down for you. For a 60" skein you will need the piping cut into four 4.5" pieces and one 12.25" piece. You will also want to grab two .5" slip tee connectors, four .5" slip end caps, and four o-rings to fit snugly on the pipe. I didn't buy the o-rings, but when the yarn started slipping around I realized that I needed something to create a groove. On my niddy I am using hair ties where you would put the 0-rings. Try out all of your pieces in the hardware store to make sure they all fit together before you buy everything.
When you return home, clean the stickers and gunk off your piping and connectors and put them together. Make sure the two end pieces are perpendicular to each other. Directions for using your

To change your skein length you simply pull out the center pipe and replace it with one in the size you want. I haven't done the calculations for the other niddy noddy sizes yet, but I will post them when I do.

I found directions for using a niddy noddy on the Joy of Hand Spinning Web site along with tons of other tutorials on spinning yarn. It was a little awkward to use at first, but once I figured out how to hold it everything went faster. Here is my first skein from the Goodwill sweater.

Lots of Completed Projects

I have been a little lax in posting my latest knitting projects and I just wanted you to know that it is not because of my lack of knitting. These are my completed projects from the last week and a half. First, there is the hat that I made for Philip from scraps in my stash. Then there are state dish towels for Kentucky and Virginia (yes, I know how silly these are, but they are just for washing dishes) also made from stash yarn. I made a hemp face cloth to go with some handmade soap we are sending to a woman who made Philip and I a quilt as a wedding present (a thank you card didn't seem sufficient for such a great gift.) My copy of the Second Treasury of Magical Knitting finally arrived so I had to try out the basic moebius pattern in banana silk yarn, I am really happy with the way this one came out. I also made 4 needle cases from recycled yarn I had in my stash, these should felt, but we'll have to wait and see about that since I am not 100% sure about their fiber content. Last, but not least, I finished my first cigar glove and I am working on glove number two. The first glove was a little tricky since I had to guess on the finger measurements, I ended up redoing the pinky finger because my original guess was too long.

More bedazzling goodness

Today I volunteered to help out with my pseudo aunt's belly dancing workshop. My responsibility was to get people registered and sell tickets. Basically, I sat at a table all day knitting with an occasional interruption. I took breaks during the workshops to take little walks since no one really needed my services. On one of my walks I decided to check out the vending area, just in case. It consisted of millions (I didn't count, but I am willing to bet cash) of sequins, beads, gold coins and rhinestones on enough brightly colored satin to clothe a small village. As I was admiring the sparkles I realized that this would be the perfect home for my bedazzler. It was a world where the bedazzler is not only understood, but revered. In my world the bedazzler will never be more than the butt of a joke. It made me sad for a moment, but then I realized that the bedazzler is an inanimate object that doesn't feel and at least in my world it isn't a threat to society. I think that makes me a hero for buying it before it fell into the wrong hands.

Thrift score!!

Yesterday I spent most of the day thrift store shopping with Sarah and Jessica. We hit the Salvation Army and 3 Goodwill stores and here is all of my loot. I spent under $30 and I came out with 3 sweaters to frog for the yarn, a pile of white hankies to embroider, a coconut monkey to add to my collection (first Lexington tiki score ever!), 2 framed big-eyed kid prints, unused floral sheet that I will make into a skirt and some bags to sell, floral pillowcase that will become a skirt, a 50's sci-fi movie (my most expesive purchase at $4.50, but I am a sucker for technicolor), and some random socks for Philip to use for sock creatures.
The score of the day, however, was the new-in-the-box Bedazzler I found for $1.99. This beautiful machine came with tons of studs and rhinestones that will be used for something fabulous, though I am not quite sure what that will be. Now I am off to the farmers' market for some yummy veggies.

You spin me right round

For those of you who may or may not be considering getting me a spinning wheel for Christmas I just thought I would tell you that I have choosen the wheel that I want. Meet the Ashford Traveler, not as small as the joy, but much sturdier and more powerful (not to mention $150 cheaper). If you are considering buying one of these babies for the holiday season there are a few things that you should know. First, I prefer the double drive model because it offers more control. I also want an unfinished wheel so that I can apply a color finishing that is to my liking. Stone's Throw Artisans on Main Street in Georgetown will order the wheel for you and offer layaway options, just don't order too late, they get backlogged around the holidays. If you are reading this entry and you are not planning on buying me a wheel, well you just wasted two minutes.

At last, the skirt

Okay, I had Philip taking pictures of me in the skirt, but he didn't take any I liked. Since I can't take pictures of myself wearing the skirt you will have to settle for the skirt on the floor. It looks square in the picture, but it actually has more of an A-line. I think that I still might replace the buttons with ties, but I'm going to wear it a bit first.
On the knitting front, for the last few days I have been knitting these weird state dish cloths. I started because I have a bunch of leftover cotton in various colors from my touring days and I figured at least dish cloths are useful. I made one for Virginia and one for Kentucky and I have enough cotton for at least 7-8 more so I will be going wild over the next few weeks. I also plan on making the cigar gloves from the new knitty for Philip. I am buying the needles on Friday and this will be my first attempt at gloves so wish me luck.

My apologies

Our internet was out most of the day yesterday (thanks Cox!) and the camera battery is dead this morning so I will be posting the skirt tomorrow.

The great skirt ordeal

Last weekend I decided that I was going to make a skirt. I really wanted a summer skirt and it was a long weekend so the project was perfect. I went to the fabric store and they were having a huge holiday sale and all patterns were $2. I don't know why, but I saw the pattern sale a sign that I should buy a skirt pattern instead of just designing my own. I have never followed a pattern, every time I try I get frustrated with the construction and I end up making it my way. I guess I thought this time would be different so I picked out a skirt pattern and bought the 3.5 yards of fabric the pattern said that I needed to make the skirt, even though it seemed excessive. I got home and unfolded the cut fabric and realized either the pattern was wrong or the pattern was for a giant. As usual I tossed the pattern aside and went my own route. I decided a wrap skirt was what I really wanted so I cut the pieces and sewed them together. Then once the main pieces were assembled I decided I wanted to finish the skirt with bias tape instead of seems, of course I didn't think of this at the fabric store. I decided to set the skirt aside and finish it with bias tape this weekend. I went out this morning and bought the tape along with some extra thread, just in case. I returned home and within an hour my skirt was complete-- or so I thought. I wore it out for a walk and realized I need a pocket. I had some coordinating fabric that I used for the waist leftover, but it was too plain for a pocket. I decided to embroider a little rocket on the fabric to make it more interesting, this is where things take a turn. I was using one of the iron-on transfers from Jenny Hart, but as soon as I plugged the iron in I overloaded our circuit and blew a fuse. A month ago this would be no problem, I would simply go into the basement and switch it all back on, but our building changed management at the beginning of June and they changed the lock on the basement door so my key was no good. We had to call the emergency maintenance number and some poor guy, probably in the middle of dinner with his family, had to come out and turn our power back on. Once we regained power, I ironed on the pattern and started embroidering the rocket. I saved the smoke cloud for last because I wasn't sure if I wanted it white, Philip expressed some concerns about it so I figured I could make a better decision once everything around it was complete. I finished everything and it was clear that the smoke cloud should be white so I went to grab the white embroidery floss and there was none, not even anything close. It was 1am at this point and my options were 1) drive to Wal-mart and buy some or 2) wait until the SnB on Monday and walk over to Michaels to grab some. I realized the item in question would cost about $.25 and the drive to Wal-mart (not to mention the trauma) would cost about $4 in gas, there was no way I could justify the trip. On the other hand, if I wait until Monday to get the thread, there is a good chance that this skirt would join my pile of unfinished projects that have little hope of ever being finished. After pacing my apartment for 10 minutes I got the idea to make my own embroidery floss out of the polyester sewing thread I have, if it didn't work I would be no worse off. Anyway, it took 8 strands of thread to match the thickness and it was a little frustrating to work with, but it did work and my pocket is done. Tomorrow I will sew it on and post the finished skirt, now I am going to bed.

Vegan Crab Cakes

Last week we had a bakesale at work and one of my co-workers (actually his wife) made these amazing vegan crab cakes. I asked for the recipe and I am posting it here for you to enjoy.

Vegan Crab Cakes

15-1/2 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
12 oz. of tofu
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. granulated garlic or 2-4 cloves of pressed garlic
1-1/2 Tbsp. of old bay seasoning
1 can of Worthington's Veg Skallops
2 pieces of bread-no crust, and "cubed"
1/2 cup flour
Cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste

1. Blend chickpeas and tofu in food processor. If the food processor is
struggling a bit because you didn't use the silken tofu just add 1 tbsp.
or more of water until it seems to be mixing well. Then add lemon juice,
garlic, old bay, salt and pepper.
2. Strain the skallops. They are big chunks of seitan so you have to cut
them up in little pieces. I take each chunk, cut several lengthwise
strips, put the strips together and cut into little pieces. This creates
the flaky sort of texture that is associated with crab. I use about 3/4 of the can.
3. Take the chickpea/tofu mixture out of the food processor and place it
in a large mixing bowl. Combine your cut up pieces of skallops with the
mixture.
4. Fold in the bread pieces and then add the flour a little bit at a
time so that the mixture becomes sticky. There is no real right or wrong
way to do this. You want the mixture to be able to be formed into
patties.
5. Grab a handful (maybe a heaping tbs. worth?) and roll it up in the
corn meal and form a patty. Both top and bottom of the patty should be
well coated. (I use paper plates for this process...easy clean up!)
6. Pan fry the patties in oil on med-hi heat (about 4-5 minutes per
side) until crispy on the outside.

Depending on how big you make your cakes this recipe should yield
between 12-20 crab cakes.

Vegan Tartar Sauce

1 cup Veganaise or the vegan mayonnaise of your choice
2 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1 Tbps. minced onion
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, mix together Veganaise, relish, and minced onion. Stir
in lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper (you can add any
more of the other ingredients too to suit your taste). Cover and
refrigerate overnight (or at least 1 hour before serving).


Makes 6 servings.