Idea Factory: Counter Top Wine Rack

I've been trying to figure out a way to use my small (5) collection  of the steel canisters that Kicking Horse was selling their coffee in a while ago. Was it last spring? Last winter?? Well, they are way to good to throw out and I haven't been happy using them to store craft items or other doodads and I can't fit my whole pound of coffee beans in them. I saw this wine rack DIY the other day; they used stacks of mailing tubes under a shelf for an easy and stylish wine rack. I think I'll do one like that for Mark (we've been searching for a large wine rack for a while now to no avail) since he has just come into a large collection of vintage mailing tubes. Perfect!
This wine rack was made by putting the steel cans inside a knitted tube that I had made on the knitting machine a really long time ago. It is approximately the same size as a snugly fitting cowl. I rolled the top down a little, stuck the cans in and voila! Most wine bottles will fit inside. The others? Just drink 'em! Great for a fast counter top wine rack. My choices? Larch Hills (Salmon Arm B.C.) Marechal Foch and Red Rooster (Penticton, B.C.) Meritage. The Foch is a little jammy for me, though gets better the more you drink and the Meritage is absolutely lovely! Wow, wine!  Both wines are proudly local too!

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the chartreuse lids. Suggestions?

Vintage Sewing Machines!

This weekend I went to the Farm to visit my cousin who was in town for a day to visit. She had this shirt she wanted sewn so pulled out some sewing machines to see which we could use. In the process we couldn't find the bobbins, so I brought her shirt home to sew, but we found all of this vintage gear her mom had (machines, attachments, strange containers) from a bygone era. It was awesome.

FO Friday! Pick, Pick, Pick it up!

I wanted to post about this sweater I knit two years ago because I've really be jonesing to knit a new one! I really love this one I made, but it's made out of hempwol 220 so it's super itchy. I made it while I was pregnant, but made it a bit too small and it sat right on my skin, itch itch itch. Now it's fitting better and less itchy, but I WANT A SOFT ONE. It's a pattern I found on good old craftster, but also has a ravelry page.

Wherever you are: EAT and DRINK LOCAL

PWB Schwartzbock

Diandra and I are always trying to eat as local as possible by growing our own food and supporting local producers and growers. I've always believed that eating, drinking, and shopping local helps to alleviate our dependance on non-local and international development. This obviously can make our communities more sustainable. I really think that the recent surge in the popularity of eating (...) local isn't something that will pass because it makes sense and feels good. Even if we don't understand why, it makes sense. Buying beef, greens, or bread from someone at the farmer's market is financially supporting our community. Thinking of all this in community terms, when we eat (...) local we are supporting our neighbours; our money stays where we live and we make our local economy stronger. I would wager that this makes us less attracted to the fleeting attentions of international companies seeking to extract resources from where we live. And so if we are less reliant on outside interest, we will be less susceptible to potentially risky environmental destruction of the places we live and the surrounding areas. This idea still holds true in larger cities without nearby forests or mineral deposits. A community that relies on employment at (ahem. internationally owned) fish farms seriously impacts their own food security. Their money then goes to buy salmon from other areas which means this food must be shipped and therefore produces immediate environmental degradation through local pollution.

It is pretty hard to do everything local but I think that we can easily change our habits over time by make some simple decisions about where we shop and what we buy that can make it happen. Keep in mind that all change is gradual, and when we start to look at our choices with a different lens, we eventually don't even notice that we are making 'different' choices.
The power of making choices that impact our lives is forever satisfying. Making choices that make us feel good because they are aligned with our beliefs is even better.

I'm feeling very local today!

I love this new beer from Pacific Western Brewing! 

I'm really into stouts right now so Schwartzbock is an absolutely fantastic addition to my current beer faves. As you can expect from our local brewery, it's a whopping 8% alcohol content! Classic Prince George! I've been experimenting with drinking it warm or room temperature as well as cold and it's great both ways. 

Yum! Refreshing and sweet, smooth and crisp; it's a great beer. Give it a try, you'll find it in most cold beer and wine stores in the P.G. area and beyond in government booze stores. Also available at Nancy O's here in downtown P.G. 

Knitting photoshoot

I finally got the photoshoot that I've been wanting for a bunch of my knitted projects. It was a great early spring day; half the sky was sunny and blue and the other half was overcast. Asia * and I did photos for three big projects: a cowl, my cardigan, and this lace skirt. Tee was there to help out as usual so we got some great shots which will make their way into patterns, my ravelry gallery, and emails to family. I would recommend getting a friend with an eye for design and a good camera to grab some photos of you and your family as much as possible. It is fun to have nice photos and you shouldn't have to wait for a special occasion to have some taken. Photos of the everyday are a great way to look back and remember stuff and are usually more intimate than posed special occasion photos.
I'm putting the finishing touches on my Lace Petal Cardigan pattern. One more test knit and I will be releasing it. Here's another photo:

Can you think of a better name for it? I'm stumped!
*[Asia has just moved into a great little old house downtown...look forward to another home tour...yippee!]

Rhubarb Oatmeal Recipe

I whipped this up for breakfast this morning to enjoy with a strong cup of coffee on the deck in the sun. I had cut the rhubarb yesterday for dessert crumble that never materialized, so this morning I tossed the crumble ingredients into a pot and cooked up this improvised breakfast cereal. 

You will need: 

Fresh rhubarb, water, a handful of large oats, a couple big spoonfuls of sugar (depending on how sour you like your 'barb. 

Chop the rhubarb and cover with water. Toss the oats and sugar on top and stir. Cook at high heat until it is boiling, reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook until the rhubarb is soft and falls apart and the oats are cooked. Spoon into bowls, top with cream or milk and a couple pieces of candied ginger and enjoy! 

DIY: How-to make a DIY Kid

Some books and blogs and blah blah blah will give you ideas and tutorials to help surround your child with handmade playpens, bedroom banners, hand-stitched quilts for their bed all in an effort to surround children with 'real' things and encourage them towards creativity. Sounds great! I imagine these tired moms/dads busily sewing a patchwork play tent while dinner is burning and their kid rots her brains watching T.V.. Or maybe mom is working on these projects while the kid is at school or sleeping. Sounds backwards to me. Above all, people and parents (especially creative ones) need to work on their own stuff and have their own time, right? Yes, your child is the most important person in your house, but he doesn't need to know that! The easiest way to ruin kids? Let them know they rule the house. Yikes! Besides, you are important too! Without healthy personal time, we can't be good parents.
So, back to crafting space and kid...
What about actually getting your kid to create their own crafty space? Wouldn't that be revolutionary!

I've almost always gotten T to help me with house stuff like cooking and cleaning. Even from when she was really little she would 'help' out with everything I do around the house. So now T can do her own laundry, and cook simple meals (noodles & cheese, pancakes, french toast), she's learning to read to so recipes are starting to make sense. She is getting the hang of fractions (cooking/baking) and loves to do crafts. Oh girl, does she ever like to craft!!

What worked for us (and maybe it worked a little too well...) was to have Tee be in charge of decorating her space/bedroom and helping out with decorating the rest of the house too. She is usually busy making posters for her room, putting her artwork up, and making stuff. The other thing we've done is encouraging her to 'shadow craft'. What this means for us: I'm hand knitting, she is finger knitting, I'm machine sewing and she is hand-sewing, I'm writing, she's drawing or colouring...you get the idea. T's family is full of artistic people too so it definitely helps to be surrounded by art and crafts that she's seen people make, I guess that makes it easy for her to see how she could do that too. 

She's gotten to the point where she comes up with ideas for re-using and re-purposing every day items. This took me years to learn to do myself, you know to get that 'vision' and see the possibilities for things, and it seems to have come to her naturally. It's awesome. The other day she was playing with her camera and her knitting and made her very first knitting video tutorial. It blows my mind. Mostly I'm surprised when she does this kind of stuff but then when thinking about why or how she has ended up like this. 

FO: Cardigan Pillow

I love old cardigans but they are too big, too scratchy, or too ratty to wear. You know the ones I'm talking about because every thrift store has at least a couple on the rack. It's obvious that a lot of work went into these sweaters; you can't just make the patterning up as you go, you've got to plan shit that brilliant. Don't forget about all those hours of knitting that were put into each one. It's all really too bad because they are mostly unwearable since they were made in a time when soft wool was out of vogue, too expensive, or actually unavailable to the knitter. As hard as it is to cut into these sweaters to re-create them, it is worth it.

This is one of my favorite pillows made out of an old cardigan. I decided to pretty much leave it as is, and just chopped the arms off at the seams and sew the front and back together just below the neckline. The buttons should be changed but I'm too lazy (I would love to replace them with leather ones but this will never happen). The pockets were left as is and are a great place to tuck remotes or phones when not in use. You'll always find them!

Glimpse Tour

While the family went out to Sustain-a-table tonight I spent the time hanging with Seth and unpacking the kitchen. Can you imagine how many lids and how much tea we have? It felt so good to have the tea all sorted and unpacked. Boxes on the bottom, tins in the middle, containers of "mixes" on the top and loose bags of tea in a little tray so we can just pull it down. A bunch of boxes to still unpack. We'll make it fit? Ah ha!

Lace Petal Cardigan Teaser

My sweater is done! Did the photo shoot on Friday, yay! It's so great. The lace yoke is really dramatic and I'm glad I went with the short sleeves. I love it! A perfect spring sweater. I can't wait to share the pattern with you. 

Forgotten Food (and a quick recipe)

I often forget about certain types of food.
I'll be making the same old stuff and then all of a sudden, I realize that I really like making something and make it and am reminded about how great it is. I forgot that it was possible to make it.  My latest 'forgotten food' was burritos. I know! It's weird, of course burritos exist, how could I have forgotten about them?!
Does this happen to you? It's probably only me.
Know I think this happens because I run into problems with buying some ingredients or maybe it's because of the local seasonal eating that I tend to try. Maybe it is just a 'food rut'/ Whatever it is, I enjoyed these burritos the other day and wanted to share them with you here. Burritos are so fucking easy AND great for kids and other picky eaters. Letting everyone assemble them cuts down on food prep time, makes sure that everyone gets what they want for dinner, and gives you more time to knit. Sounds great to me!

Quick Chipotle Sauce 

Add a spoonful of lime juice, a clove of minced garlic, and the liquid from the can if chipotle peppers to equal parts mayonaise and sour cream. 

Put this stuff on everything. I'm serious. 

You will find all kinds of food-vehicles to get this stuff in your body. 

WIP Wednesday!

Whee! I totally woke up this morning super stuffed with a sore throat and I should've called in sick but have a bunch of work to do in my job job. So, I came to the office and I'm trolling my reader, gearing up to take on this insurmountable pile of work I have to do. May = crazy making times. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Kitchen: We just moved in with a family that we're good friends with the other day. It's so awesome! I've been inspired and cooking a lot (tonight is my night off!) and have made muffins and this pumpkin loaf by Isa Chandra (on the KindLife). So good. Tomorrow I'm traveling to Ucluelet for derby benchmarking and I thought I'd make myself Onigiri for the car ride out there (and to fuel myself all good). Every time I type the word, "onigiri" I crave the spicy tuna and negitoro onigiri I used to get in Japan. YUM.

Community: Not doing board work for roller derby is an incredible thing and it's been really good at helping me to focus my community-building energies into other directions. Last week I helped co-organize a Food Coalition Potluck to bring those interested in food together to share a potluck meal (that was SO delicious). The group was larger than I expected and they had lots of great ideas, but I'm not sure who is going to take on organizing the next meet up.

Craft: I'm craving the time and space to make crafts! I've been knitting my newest sweater up like a storm, it's definitely the lightest weight sweater I've ever knit! And, I'm going to sew Sethie a Totoro plush for his birthday in 2 weeks!

What are you working on right now?

Vintage Updates: my current knitting obsession

Vintage patterns are the best! I love all the little notes, the seemingly archaic techniques, the outdated photos, the tortured children models, and the malaise that vintage designers often had for the perceived laziness of "modern" knitters. I love decoding the secret messages in the patterns, and the challenge of trying to figure out the construction of some garments forever amazes me. I find that among all the crap, there are lots of great patterns that simply need nice yarn and a patient hand to uncover them. Though looking past the often terrible photo quality or hilarious modelling can be a chore in itself, those undertaking this challenge are rewarded with timelessly styled finished projects. Take a look in your local thrift store for old pattern books, typically they can be had for less than a dollar. Just stay away from the 70's patterns! I'm not sure if there were any salvageable designs published in that entire decade.
My latest update project is almost done! I did most of it while watching Seasons 1-3 of House (for free online) while I was sick last month then I set it aside to consider the best way to do the button bands. I picked it back up today and got going again.
The goal for today was to get it done and publish the pattern. Everything was going well until I couldn't find all my notes about a half an hour ago. Fuck!
I'm going to head downtown to find some buttons and then I'll sew them on and finish it!
Here are a couple in progress photos for you to drool over while you anticipate the final project. My plans are to publish it for you to enjoy and make for your self. I will, of course need to find my notes first.

Method to my madness:
First, I reworked a vintage baby smock pattern as a short sleeved baby cardigan using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, it came out a bit big: the "6month size" will actually fit a 2 year old. Then I made the pattern to fit an adult by upping the yarn and needle size, here I used Sweet Georgia Worsted in Orchid and Olive with a 5.5mm needle (and got 4 sts per inch, which is a chunky gauge). I worked the bottom part in seed stitch, and the neckband is picked up and worked as a picot band that I learnt from Stephanie Japel's 'Fitted Knits' then I used a 3 needle bind off so it would stand up a little. As far as technique goes, it's a little cheeky but turns out really sweet. The button bands are worked in ribbing. That's it.