My new sewing space

I have spent the last week working on a submission for the AntiCraft book which I am not allowed to show you so I have no proof. I have also been working on a pair of socks when I have downtime. These are made with some yarn sent by my last secret pal that has been sitting in my stash for way too long.

After all of my book stuff is done I will start my sewing phase. Philip agreed to let me do some rearranging in the studio so I can set up a small sewing table. This means that my machine will have a permanent home and I won't have to sew in the dining room anymore. He is also letting me take over the drafting table I bought him last Christmas since he rarely does any drawing there. I have already adjusted the table so that it is flat and put my cutting mat there which means I don't have to do my cutting on the floor anymore. I went out with Sarabeth this morning to see if I could find a sewing table at a local thrift store. I wasn't looking for anything fancy, just a 2'x3' table, preferably with one of those hinged leafs. If I didn't find one my plan was to go to a hardware store and pick up those pre-cut table parts and build my own since I didn't want to wait around for a table. Anyway, I found a small writing desk at the first thrift store we went to. It was a little larger than I wanted, about 2'x4', but it had nice big drawers and it was solid oak all for under $20. Getting it home was a bit of an ordeal since it was about 1" too tall to fit in our car and about 5" to wide to fit in the trunk. We ended up having to call my dad to come and get it for us.

When we got it home I sorted through all of my sewing stuff and organized it into the desk drawers. I didn't even think to look for a chair so for the time being I will just use one of the dining room chairs. Overall, I am very pleased with the day's outcome and my new sewing space.

Doppelgangers

Image stills from the Burg.

My rockin' SP

I received another package from my incredible secret pal yesterday. She made me a fuzzy pair of gauntlets, that I have already made use out of. She also included a little journal, a magnet, and a beautiful ball of sock yarn that I can't wait to knit up. I have been really good about not stashing yarn, but somehow I have accumulated enough sock yarn for six pairs of socks. I was trying to hold off on the sock knitting until the summer when I want more portable projects, but I might have to add a pair of socks to my current queue.

Then, if one package wasn't enough, my coworkers ordered me a box of vegan goodies from Pangea for my birthday. They sent vegan jerky, peanut butter cups, Caesar salad dressing, organic croutons, marshmallows, and sprinkles. I used the salad dressing on my salad last night and it was delicious.

In spinning news I now have 4 skeins of handspun complete (and more plyed yarn that needs to be set.) I am going to try spinning the ingeo fiber I have this weekend; I have been saving it since I wanted to feel pretty confident in my spinning before I attempted using the expensive stuff. I will post the results, good or bad.

In honor of the cold weather I am going to do something that I haven't done in quite awhile, I am going to post a recipe. Chai tea is my favorite thing in the world to drink when it is cold outside so here is the recipe that I use when I am on the go.

Warm Winter Chai

1 teabag of your favorite chai tea
1/3 cup Vanilla silk
1 Tbls. Raw Agave Nectar

Squirt the agave nectar in the bottom of a large coffee cup. Then fill the mug 3/4 of the way full with very hot water. Add the teabag and let seep for 3-4 minutes. Remove the teabag and fill the rest of the mug with Vanilla soymilk. Stir and enjoy.

Why agave? In my opinion, agave nectar is the best thing to happen to tea since the teabag. While it has a very similar flavor to honey, it is thinner so it dissolves more readily in hot and cold liquids and it never crystallizes. The fact that it was never spit out of a bee's mouth is just an added bonus.

Regarding my birthday

To whom it may concern,
I will be celebrating my birthday this year, but I will not be turning 29. I have given it a lot of thought and I have decided that I have no desire to be 29 and since I enjoyed being 28 so much I will remain 28 for another year. Next year I will turn 30 with a big-ass party as scheduled. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter. *robyn

New Blogger?

I am thinking about switching my blog over to the newer version, but I am a little scared. The new version looks like more of what I want, but once you switch there is no going back so I want to make sure it isn't going to cause any problems. Has anyone tried the new version? What do you think? Did you encounter any problems?

On the needles

Right now I have two new large projects on the needles. The first is the bamboo ballerina tank from SWTC. This is a sample for the store so I will never actually wear it, but I still have to make it fit the little fake plastic girl who hangs on the wall. I am making the smallest size so it should go pretty fast.

The second project is a sweater for me. It is a very simple stockinette stitch sweater that I am designing to fit me perfectly. I did all of the swatches and calculations last week so I am now about 10" into the front side. I started doing the front and the back at the same time so they match up perfectly, but the two balls of yarn were driving me crazy so I switched to the old way of doing one side at a time. I have 5 balls of this yarn and I am really hoping it's enough, my estimations make it really close, but I don't think that I can get any more so if it doesn't make it I will either have to add another color or make 3/4 sleeves. Here's my progress so far.

Week in review

Every year I take a week of vacation over New Year's week as a way to reorganize my life and recover from the holiday chaos. This year was a little different since I have the store and can't actually abandon it for an entire week, but I still had a whole lot of time off to try to get things a little more organized in my life. I started late last week by getting all of the laundry and cleaning out of the way so that I could focus on more important projects like organization. Philip and I went through our clothes, art & craft supplies, books, and knick knacks and took the stuff we no longer use to Goodwill today. In return, the thrift gods smiled down on me and brought me the lampshade I have been searching for since last April. Also, a trip to Goodwill always includes a stop by Pop's which is two doors down. We didn't find any records today, but I did get a warm applejack hat that I love. After Pop's, we went across the street to my favorite antique market, Feather Your Nest. It always takes some digging to find the good stuff in my price range, but I ended up leaving with a vintage apron, a 1950's framed print, 2 art glass bowls, some vintage fabric, a bag of 1960's mod buttons, and a little something special for Sarabeth that I cannot disclose. As with any thrifty day we ate lunch at Gumbo Ya-ya's which was fabulous as always.

We also went searching for the vegan Tom Yum soup paste that we bought somewhere when we first moved here, but that didn't end so well. I have a hunch that we got it at Vishal, the Indian market in Chevy Chase. They have a small section of other Asian foods and they were sold out of most of the curry and soup pastes, but since the shelves weren't labeled we couldn't tell what they usually have. We will check them again in a couple of weeks.

With the rest of my free time this week I have been trying to use up some of my overwhelming stash of craft supplies by making little things I can sell in the store. I made tie cuffs with the remainder of my tie stash, a wallet with some old craft felt, and a headband with some leftover Christmas yarn. My new goal is to take the leftover yarn from every project and try to find a way to use it up. So far I have made two hats and a headband with the yarn leftover from my Christmas projects.

I don't need no stinkin' cable needle

I just learned to do cables without a cable needle; I am feeling like a complete bad-ass now! If you are interested, here is the tutorial I used.

In other news, I finally got my spinning wheel finished and assembled and I am going to Stone's Throw in g-town for an all-day spinning lesson, woo hoo!!