Mini-greenhouses

I was committed to using household waste for growing plants in this year: toilet paper rolls, ice cream containers, milk cartons, throwaway coffee cups, etc. I planted everything a little late, but have created these little "green houses" for plants using a paper cup on the bottom (that I jabbed holes in the bottom of with a fork) and a plastic cup on top! (I also use both kinds of cups for freezing vegetable stock in the freezer, or the milk cartons/tetras for freezing fish in!

Friday Favourites #8: Douglas Coupland

I got an email from a good friend yesterday who works at Random House.  The subject line read,

"I'm two feet away from Douglas Coupland, in the office"

I have long loved Doug: his books, his art, his wry interviews and awkward candor, and his house(s). Pretty much everything he does inspires me to the fullest and I spend much of my life in career and design orienting myself as a follower of this man.

If you don't know who Douglas Coupland is (!!) here's the basic gist. He's a Canadian author and artist who is more prolific than the reality TV show industry. In the 80s he went to Emily Carr and was the author who coined the term Generation X (and now Generation A - go Doug!). He seamlessly mixes mediums from books to TV to clothing to furniture design and play writing, and is an unofficial spokesperson for all things progressive and arty/designy coming from Canada's "youth".

Here's a small round up of my favourite Douglas Coupland projects/products!

Douglas Coupland X Roots from iwantigot.com

In the last year or so Doug had partnered with Roots (meh) to do a "fashion line". It BLEW MY MIND. It was so so so good to see iconic DC images and references in clothing (despite their stupid high price points). Above are the motherboard leggings, motherboard scarf, and test pattern scarf.

DC has written a long list of books both fiction and non-fiction, all of which I prize (some more than others). Up there at the top for me are Girlfriend in a Coma, Hey Nostradamus, Miss Wyoming, and of course Shampoo Planet. Shampoo Planet is one of DC's earlier books and feels like it's finding itself at the same rate that the protagonist (tyler) is finding himself. There's a scene at the end of the book where tyler is lying in bed and animals are just falling from the sky onto him and gush. I think the reason I identify with this book and Girlfriend or Nostradamus the most is that they're about my generation, and capture so authentically it's like looking in a mirror.

While I disdain the identification as a "Canadian", DC's Souvenir of Canada series (two books and a movie) were as wistful for me as they were for DC. I had the opportunity to see the premier of the movie at the VIFF way back and DC spoke about the film and fielded questions, congradulating the full theatre of Vancouverites for braving the October rain to see his movie. ha! I'm pretty sure it's the Vintagey throwback I'm more attracted to in this series as opposed to my pull to the Canadiana, and the way that DC identifies his Canadian roots with the Vintageyness of his child hood and how it frames his identity "today". The movie was great, too, in that you got to see the creation of Canada House and the emotional rollercoaster for DC of taking on such a large creative project.

Canada House!

Last year DC's second home (next door to his primary residence) was featured in the NY Times.

thrifted mouse trap sculpture!

wall of spools!

I love the white juxtaposed with the bright colours.

Last but definitely not least, DC loves Helvetica as much as we do.

So much so that we named our baby after it (and DC approves!). Check out DC's website and his Twitter and get lost for HOURS!

Do you like Douglas Coupland? What's your favourite project of his?

WIP Wednesday

Hi! Happy wednesday!

My WIPs are all over the place, so a big one is getting organized. I'm hitting the road later this week so I've got to figure out which projects are coming along...there are so many to choose from!

Craft: I'm making pillow covers, like this. The cotton yarn is from a long sweater that I ripped out eons ago. I've made a shrug and a bath mat out of the stuff and still have lots left, maybe I'll make one of these and sell it to you for $150! Working with a single strand it was more of a chunky weight but I've been knitting with 2, 3, or even 4 strands to make a super chunky yarn.

Craft: The never ending silk shawl. I'll take it with me on the road this week and hopefully be able to finally finish it!

Craft: I'm dying this vintage 2-ply (lace weight) with drink crystals. Really. Maybe it will be next month's giveaway, would you like that?

Craft: Humans are still gross. I'm on to the digestive system. Then it'll be the Respiratory System. My little big sister and I were counting the number of times I've done this same material for credit...I think it's 6 times so far. We can only hope this will be the last time.

Kitchen: I would make something if I could find the kitchen! I'm digging it out from under all those dishes.

I'm trying to save this cilantro. Instead of buying a little plastic package, I bought plants! The cilantro didn't survive repotting.

Community: Mostly getting ready for the next RPGRG Bout, May 14th. I'll be making the programs again so I'll spend part of today dreading that formatting nightmare.

Bike To Work Week is coming up soon too, May 30th to June 4th. I've got a planning meeting this Friday! We've got a great line-up of celebration stations planned this year, one for every day of the week. The City will host the first one and there will be a catered breakfast! We'll be ending the week with the PG Cycling Club hosting their station at the PG Farmer's Market which will be outside! Check out the link to the provincial group for more information, you can also register online for other community groups, I think PG will be doing email registration this year.

Stripes Forever

Diandra and I love stripes. This sounds nuts, but really, striping is awesome. My favorite socks that I have ever knit are the ones pictured above. In an effort to conserve yarn and prolong its life in my stash, I striped Ranco Multi (handpainted and beautiful) with heathered charcoal Kroy Sock (plentiful and inexpensive).

If you look at the inside of my leg on the sock, you can see that the stripes don't match up. While it is close enough for some, I would rather that my striping was seamless. I think this is especially important when using two yarns that contrast quite a bit.

I wish I had seen this video before I made my socks. She knits like a maniac and shows a two methods for jogless striping for knitting in the round. Even if you aren't into knitting, you can appreciate this woman's speed with her sticks, it's freaky!

The two techniques used here are the 'Slip Stitch Jogless Join' (skip to 4:22) and 'Barber Pole Knitting', which is useful for knitting one-row stripes with three colours.

I find that the Slip-Stitch method looks a little funny until blocked.

I'll be re-knitting my striped socks soon using the Jogless Stripes method and will publish the pattern, I promise! If you would like to do it now, use your favorite basic sock pattern orKnitty's Sock 101 and stripe by alternating 4 rows of each yarn. I worked the ribbing with Charcoal Kroy and also used it for heels and toes (it has a little nylon in it so it will be stronger).

Aren't these the cutest legwarmers? I'm working on my jogless striping with them.

How do you feel about striping? Are you a Jogger or not?

Cookbook Review, Recipe, and a Giveaway!

When you walk into the Port Alberni public library, there's a shelf of new books to the library just sitting there, waiting for you/me to take something out. I have a bit of a method when I got to the library and checking this shelf out is always the first stop (and then my holds, baby board books, cookbooks, knitting books, and magazines in that order). Libaries in rural communities (and cities) are oftentimes a dying breed, but I've always loves libraries and the access to books and music and magazines and the interent for FREE !! The Vancouver Island Regional Library system is incredible because not only can you look up and reserve your titles online, you can order interlibrary loans pretty easily, and then the library system not only sends you an email when your book is available to pick up, they send due date reminders, and notices the day after your book is due (so there's not a lot of late fees). The collection is also incredible and accessible, even if our local branch is teeny tiny and not open as often as I'd like.

All this to say that when I went to pick up my holds last time there was this super thick, hardcover cookbook sitting on the "new books" shelf. We could probably all agree that we're facing a zeitgeist or uber-trend of Homemaking as a way of life and eco-trends in books, blogs (like this one), consumer items, tv shows, etc, and The Commonsense Kitchen appears to fit right in.

What I didn't know about the book when I opened it, was that it is written by a chef and teacher at an all-boys (mans?) private farming-style school in the US. The school has a long history and a symbiotic connection to agriculture and the cycles of growing. After I got over the "no women?" portion and started reading the book and going over the recipes, I also realized that this is a cookbook by someone who loves food. Loves cooking it. Loves thinking about it. Loves eating it. and Loves serving it. It is the direct replacement for any Joy of Cooking or BHG New Cookbook (which is what I have) and the recipes celebrate the food you're about to eat, rather than pumping out a gazillion recipes for the busy housewife. The reverence for food in this book is alluring and I've tried two recipes (the Beef Bourguignon stew and the Rhubarb Custard Pie) and can say without a doubt that they're ridiculously easy to follow and the results knocked my socks off.

The stew was the basic beef stew recipe with modifications (including an almost full bottle of shiraz). I used some local chuck and bacon chunks and followed the recipe almost to the letter. I served it with potatoes with butter, sauteed mushrooms deglazed in more wine, and sauteed kale and leeks (from the farmer's market).  The entire time I thought of Julie and Julia and the BUTTER MORE BUTTER mantra. It was ridiculous.

The other recipe I made was the Rhubarb Custard Pie. I came home from the farmer's market with just over a pound of rhubarb and grabbed this book and went straight to rhubarb and the half pie I ate probably wishes I hadn't.

Rhubarb Custard Pie
adapted from The Commonsense Kitchen

Ingredients
Single pie crust in pie plate
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs lightly beaten
4 cups of rhubarb cut on the diagonal, somewhat thinly
2 tbsp butter, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 425F.  Blend sugar, flour, nutmeg and salt together. Add the remaining ingredients (try not to put the hot butter directly on the eggs!) and stir to combine. Pour into pie shell and bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325F and bake for another 45 minutes. When you take it out of the oven I challenge you to wait until it's cooled a little before you eat it; but if you can't wait, that's OK, because it's INCREDIBLE when it's steaming hot (with some coffee to wash it down).

GIVEAWAY!

Because this cookbook is so awesome and on the newer side, I think it would be nice of us to give you a copy! I'll be ordering it from Amazon (boo, I know, but I'm not rich and they have FREE shipping!) and sending it straight to you, so you must live in either Canada or the US. All you have to do is leave a comment recounting one of your favourite farm or market visits by MAY 6th at 6:00PM PST and we'll use the Random Number Generator to pick the lucky winner.  Good Luck! (make sure to leave a way for us to get a hold of you in your comment).

Friday Favourites #7: V A N C O U V E R !!

I'm really lucky that with my new job I get to pile together the family and go to Vancouver a few times over the next few months. We often fantasize about moving to Vancouver and really living the life, but it's so expensive and so inaccessible to those of us who'd rather just not spend that kind of money, and compromise quality of life for long rides on busses, never having enough money to do everything, and having no family around. But, I do love the little neighbourhoods, and the record stores, and the number of yarn stores you can get your hands on. Oh! And the whole new round up of shops at Fraser and 15th is pretty inspiring (ie. Spool of Thread and Collage Collage). Do you get to Vancouver once in a while? Where are your favourite places/things to do/meals to eat?

Jones Soda, Dan Savage in the Straight, and Tiki-style postcards, all courtesy of the Templeton. Whenever I'm in Vancouver I make an effort to get to the Foundation or the Templeton. I love the downtown, grimy vibe, and the little vintage oasis the Templeton provides. And, their almost all veggie menu is swoon worthy. The grilled veg and cheese (with hummus and fries!) is just the best thing ever.

MMM, the buckwheat crepe guy at the Trout Lake Farmer's Market!! We waited in line for about 1/2 hour, in the rain, to get our hands on these ginormous, filling made right in front of you crepes.

The Trout Lake Farmer's Market brings back good times memories. When I was a kid, my grandma lived right beside the park and we would play there all the time when we came to visit her. The time this photo was taken was right after the peak of harvest and there were so many apples, carrots, beets, squash, and local eggs and meat. It was a little overwhelming, but refreshing to know that these vendors are going FULL FORCE to meet the demand (the market was crazy busy).

Vancouver has a bit of reputation for it's thrifting (and the difficulty of getting gems at certain shops because they're targeted by vintage buyers, ie. the Victoria Drive Value Village) and the Wildlife Rescue Thrift Store is probably your best bet for kitschy and old school. A and I went there and scored a handful of racist paraphenalia, and this is a shot of the princess herself in reverence with her "native american" ancestors. She had planned to take it back on the plane to Bella, but reasoned it wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment.

Dinner at Kam's Place Singaporean. I've heard a rumour that it's closed down since this photo was taken, but the gathering of friends over a family style arrangement of food was overwhelming. We all ate so much food. And, the deep fried banana for desert was devoured faster than you can spell singaporean backwards. Hawker's Delight is probably an OK substitute.

Vancouver also has a number of outdoor pools and if I get the chance to get there in the Summer I love heading to Kits pool to swim in the sun, stare at the north shore mountains, and lounge on the grass beside the pool. Guh, I want to go swimming there NOW!

Knitting a Revolution

Have you seen knit graffiti (a.k.a. yarn bombing)? Deemed by some to be the most unoffensive form of graffiti, it is taking the term 'graffiti' itself and subverting it. Pieces are often assembled in the daytime, aren't anonymous, and are celebrated widely by the media (seriously, like: CNN, Globe & Mail, NBC, etc.). These projects are also easy to remove if they cause offense, but this never happens because knitting isn't political, it is pretty. People love pretty graffiti!

What is Graffiti? Graffiti is all about putting a representation or yourself or your community in a landscape where you don't see one already. Plainly put, it is about claiming space for yourself. The confusing thing about graffiti is that sometimes it isn't esthetically pleasing or 'pretty' and sometimes it is called 'art'. Why the difference? Is it about permissions? About the quality of the art? The location? Does it matter who did it? Was it a bona-fide artist or a kid with spray paint? Isn't it all graffiti? What about this:

Typically we divide graffiti into two categories: 'Public Art' and 'Vandalism'. So really, the categories are: Pretty and Not Pretty.

Yes, this gets into the whole 'who decides what is art?' discussion, but really, who cares? Lets forget about the difference, reject the art v. vandalism debacle, and create something for ourselves! Lucky for knitters, people seem to really like knitted graffiti. As long as it isn't too subversive, it stays. [I would love love love to see a 'fuck' tree scarf]. So knitted graffiti fits more into the 'Public Art'/Pretty category.

Andrea Vander Kooij's experience was a little different back in 2001. Her pink bikini and red socks are fascinating examples of Public Art/Pretty knitted graffiti but her pieces were assembled on the sly, photographed, and then removed. Andrea felt that her knitted objects weren't a welcome addition to these sculptures, but that was 10 years ago. It seems like this has since changed?

.

Maybe you've seen the crocheted Charging Bull by Olek in New York? There was a lot of press for this one. How cute! An artist who is too poor to travel home for the holidays, so she covers a charging giant bull on the steps of Wall Street in New York City. That's not political at all.

Of course there is Knitta Please, a knit graffiti collective (which everyone loves) that started with door handles and has evolved into a group of knitters traveling the world to install large scale knitted art projects. Like covering the weapons of a huge sculpture with knitted cozies. Cute!

The response is overwhelming: knitted door handle cozies, parking meter covers, tree sweaters, flowers, and mushrooms for lawns are a welcome addition to any location. These items are typically knit at home, then stretched, and sewn up around the object. See? Easy. Maybe your first knit graffiti could be that unfinished project that is lurking at the bottom of your stash basket? This poor tree has no friends to keep it warm, super-knitter to the rescue!

So, if you are considering yarn bombing something, go ahead! You will be celebrated and people will love you for it.

So get out there and claim space for knitters and never apologize.

You heard it here: The pretty is political.

What would you yarn bomb?

[for more, read the owlery.]

WIP Wednesday

?? Career: My textbook for school (I'm working on retraining myself to be something better) and I don't want to talk about it. The Human body is amazing, magical even. People are gross.

Kitchen: I'm working on eating at home more now. I've still got lots of food from the winter and need to eat some meat from the freezer. Today I'm defrosting the mortal remains of this local, free range, and organically fed chicken ($7) that I got from a friend whose mom has a hobby farm nearby. She also sells eggs at the Farmer's Market here in town. I will roast it tomorrow and package the bits into meal sized portions for the freezer. Then I'll cross my fingers that I actually remember they are in there.

Community: This novel, have you read it? My mom's book club's newest read. I was able to snag a book club copy from our library's great collection. Yeah! I love my community (and the free stuff i get from it?).

Community: A sample project for Top Drawer Yarn Studio, where I'll be teaching two 'Sprung' classes next month. I've got a weekday and weekend class scheduled, register today!

I'm also teaching Sock Knitting 201: Toe-Up Socks in two weeks. I'm working on the pattern and instruction package for the class. We are going to use Poems Sock (below) from Wisdom Yarns. The colours are wonderful with beautiful names like aurora borealis and pumpkin patch.

Poems Sock Yarn

Craft: Bulky-weight fingerless mitts in Malabrigo Chunky for right now. My fingers are freezing! I really love the way that the 'pooling' happened here. The variegated colours are so different that when it knits up all mixed up, you can't see the gorgeous tonal variety in the blues and greens. I thought I would call the pattern 'Fluke'. What would you name it?

Craft: A Felting tutorial. I've failed at following/making up felted projects so many times now, mostly because I couldn't get X yarn in town, i want to use thrifted wool, or my washing machine felts differently than the designer's machine. I've decided to do this: knit a swatch (add directional guide), measure the swatch, felt the swatch, adapt the pattern, knit the project, felt the project. Any thoughts?

What are you working on?

Easter Craft Tutorial Round Up!

This weekend is Easter! While we don't celebrate the cutesy consumerist part (though I do love me a good cream egg), some of the tutorials for easter crafts are adorable.

 Itty Bitty Knitted Amigurumi bunnies! from Mochimochi Land

Easter Egg Hunt Bags from the Purl Bee!

Bunny Finger Puppets from the Purl Bee!

Paper Crepe Carrots from Martha Stewart! (there's even goodies inside the carrots!)

Sock Bunny Tutorial from My Paper Crane (gush!)

Have a great weekend with your Easter celebrations, frittatas, and farmer's marketing!

Whale Tail Cowl

Whale Tail Cowl

This is perfect for the weather right now in northern B.C. Sunny and warm one minute, cold and snowing (!!) the next. Layer up with this yummy cowl, works up really quickly. I actually wore mySprung to work today, but should have worn the Whale Tail Cowl. Drat!

I incorporated four repeats of my favorite cable-Staghorn into this cowl for my boyfriend. He had just raced into the yarn shop one very cold afternoon claiming that he needed something to keep his neck gap warm. I had just been looking at cowls that afternoon.I whipped up this quick knit in one evening and dropped it off for him at work the next day.

He thinks the staghorn cables look more like a pile of whale tails, so! the Whale Tail Cowl was born. Classy, I know.

This pattern features charted and written directions, the cable is fairly simple, traveling outwards every second round. The ‘whale tails’ are flanked by 4 stitch cables. This cowl is easily customizable too, if you want a longer or wider cowl, simply cast on more stitches (add multiples of 24) and work more repeats of the pattern.

I hope you enjoy the pattern and a warm neck gap!

Visit the Ravelry pattern page here.

FYI: whale tail

Vegan Yoghurt

I am a shitty vegan (and I'm not even a real vegan) because I LOVE eggs and dairy makes me weak in the knees! And then you combine eggs and milk and I wish there was some marriage class for SOUFFLE! Because I would MARRY that souffle in a heart beat.

Despite my undying love, dairy and my digestive system do not mix. And thus I try to eat non-dairy things or just non-dairy focused foods as often as possible. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and eat cheese like it's going out of style (or rice pudding, god I love rice pudding), but lately I've been enjoying making different kinds of non-cheese chez.

This yoghurt recipe makes a sweet yoghurt that is coconut-y and best eaten by the spoon. I used it as the top layer of a spinach ricotta pie and loved the sweet mixed with the savory but husband disagreed. I told him to scrape it off. YES! It's also easy peasy to make, and when I made it the milk didn't curdle all too much, but it sure tasted like yoghurt! Oh, and it didn't thicken up/bake like yoghurt is supposed to for me, but wasn't runny and was delicious.

Vegan Coconut Yoghurt

adapted from The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk

juice of one lemon

4 tbsp corn starch

3 tbsp maple syrup

pinch of salt

Directions:

Combine the coconut milk and the lemon juice and let sit for 2 -5 minutes so it can "curdle" a little.  Add 4 tbsp corn starch and 3 tbsp maple syrup and a pinch of salt; shake vigorously in a jar or blend for 1 minute (to get all the corn starch lumps out). In a small sauce pan over medium heat cook the yoghurt mixture for maximum 5 minutes stirring constantly with a fork or a whisk. Pour yoghurt into a clean jar and put in the fridge.  It should be OK for a week in the fridge and is supposed to bake up like real yoghurt.

Five Dog House Home Tour!

Emily of Five Dog House is one of the lovely gals that also relocated to Port and I'm super lucky to say she's a friend. The first time I went to her little house it was night time and I didn't even get to see the blue wood siding or front yard garden. But the wooden cupboards and vintage-y inside (combined with some of the most adorable dogs ever) made me love her house almost as much as she does. Emily has a vintage store on Etsy and is currently in the process of switching over to her very own domain. She also knits the most adorable dog cowls and sells them and other dog-items in her Earthwalkers shop.

Built in 1947, our little home is our first very own house.  We moved to Port Alberni just over a year ago from North Vancouver.  We wanted to be out of the dreaded rental market there, to be in a slower paced community and to just forge our way in a new place.  While I long for my own hobby farm, a few acres to call my own, we make our in-town house all that we want from bigger property, and so far, this old house has served us well.  We love the big yard, the original fir floors, and all of the character that it brings.  Come on in!    

A stack of books in the living room, including my late Grandfather's bird book, complete with worn pages and notes in the margins. 

We recently planted the starters inside, peppers, tomatoes, squash...here I've used an antique window to cover the pepper starters, making an instant mini greenhouse.  The garden is one of my favorite things about our home, and I'd love to take you on a tour of that in a few months!

Antique canning jars sit beside much used, well loved egg cups on the kitchen shelf.  I love antique and retro kitchen items.  It makes me think of the many meals they helped make over the years, I love imagining the history they must hold. 

I have an addiction to vintage suitcases, here they stack nicely to stand in as a side table.  Perfect storage! 

Aethan's room.  He could literally spend the day at his desk.  Drawing, inventing, sorting, Lego-ing and checking in with his favorite youtube channels (anything to do with Lego, Star Wars or Mario)

Beside the bed, the old alarm clock that I've had for years and don't have the heart to replace (waste not, want not).  Beside it, a little book I found that Aethan had made and a broken dog figure...I can't help adopting the dogs that no one else wants, even if they are fake.

Ikea chair in the living room under a poster left over from Adam's touring days with the old bands.

This 100+ year old dresser is my favorite of all pieces we have.  The lilac twigs are sprouting leaves for spring beside the Leonard Cohen print- a reminder of one of the best concerts I've ever had the pleasure of attending. 

Nature in the home, nothing I love more.  Aethan's type set tray holds his collections of little things, from Lego bits to rubber dragons and pieces of coral...even a piece of fossilized dinosaur bone and a meteorite.  

Are you interested in doing a house tour for the Home Sweet Home blog? Just email us at yerhomesweethome@gmail.com