Adventures in Nashville

I'm home and chipping away at the work I need to get done, but I wanted to post about this before the details became too hazy.

I haven't gone away on a trip in several years, so I was excited for a lot of reasons and not just the obvious. I had to remind myself repeatedly that I am actually capable of being a grown up in public and traveling to a strange city where they speak the same language as I, without getting permanently lost. Also, I took this trip with an old friend from grad school (Julie) and so would be able to make her navigate. This is very important given how I've turned getting lost into an art form.

First observation on the plane was that the river does some amazing things to the terrain. Second observation in the airport is that Nashville Int'l Airport is tiny. I realized over the course of the four days just how pocket sized Nashville is. With the car, we were never more than 20min away from anything, and that was if we hit rush hour traffic. Mind you, I realize that I may have unrealistic expectations growing up with New York as "the city" and Newark as "the airport".

So, Nashville was FOURTEEN DAYS into a heatwave of 90°F and up weather the day we arrived. The day we left, they were excited because Sunday was forecast to be "only" 89. It was a heat that just sapped the energy and turned us into melted puddles of people. The normal temperature for this time of year is a good 10-15 degrees cooler.

Thursday was the day of the event and we got up early to visit the Parthenon first. It's a full sized replica of the Greek building, but with all the friezes, etc, intact.

It was just the right size for something to occupy the morning, but I'll spare you pictures of the interior. There's a giant gilded sculpture of Athena inside, as well as replicas of the original stonework, etc.

More chatter and pics after the cut. 

Away from home

Hi, everyone! I'm sorry I'm late with the giveaway post. The winner is Andrea! I'll attempt to contact via the blog. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Meanwhile, thank everyone so much for making my shop sale a wonderful success. It's really made a difference in the trip I'm currently taking. I'm slightly fish out of water here in Nashville, and it's been so hot that wandering around has been difficult, but it's a lovely, friendly town and I'm so glad I was able to come here. This is a bit of my Thursday experience:


I've also learned some important things about how I work and how I should continue with the shop. I intend to update my shop with a more regular and predictable schedule, and I no longer have any excuses to procrastinate about editing photos. Editing and listing 43 colorways in 3 days is comparable to weaving in 200+ ends on a project. After that, everything else is peanuts!

I leave for home early tomorrow and I can't wait to get back to working on the shop. This trip has been a bit of a kick in the pants, and I want to keep the momentum up and the excitement percolating.

Now, I just need someone to tell me not to buy that hat....

Kermitflailing and shenanigasms

So, um, I just learned I won something. It's access to a private event with a musician/band I greatly enjoy.

On the downside, I was a second level winner which means I have to get there and stay there on my own dime, and it's in Nashville which means I can't just hop in the car (and sleep in it either). But dude, I am SO THERE.

In aid of actually being able to fund this trip (IT'S NEXT WEEK!), I'm having a sudden and inevitable SALE. If you know me, you know I rarely have sales; they make me nervous. But given how I'm shaking over this sudden trip, I don't think I'll notice any sale nerves at all.

The coupon code for 10% off is JuneOMG and the sale will run through June 7th so I can mail the orders before I go on the trip. For orders $50 and up, I will refund domestic shipping and cap international shipping at $5, refunding the difference.

A link to the shop.

And to play you out.... ... It autoplays, so I'm putting it behind a jump cut. I thought we used to be able to modify that setting?!

Yegads! (an anniversary video and a giveaway)

It's been another year! This is the second anniversary of my little shop and I've decided to mark this one by giving up some "secrets". OK, they weren't all that secret, but it sounds more interesting if I say they were.

The colorway that won the poll was Nebula, but since I had several pots going, I also included the runners up Red Desert and Purple Peacock. This is how the finished colorways look:

From left to right: Nebula, Purple Peacock, Red Desert, and a new colorway as yet unnamed that shows up at the end of the video. These are actual skeins dyed up in the video

I taped several hours of dyeing on Saturday and then clipped it down to a scant 30min. I hope it's interesting; I tried to be succinct but that's never been my strong point! *nibbles fingernails nervously*



And, since this is the first of the month I have a giveaway! I am giving away a skein of the Nebula that I dyed up in the video. I have two skeins that are on the cusp of underweight, hovering right at 100g. So I'm offering one up here and one up in my Ravelry group. Yes, one of these could be yours!

It's the Arctic Hare base, which is a sock/fingering weight yarn with superwash merino/nylon/silk/and real silver for that added glitz. It's very soft and perfect for much more than socks.

To enter this giveaway, just comment here. If you link to this giveaway in any other social networking venues (blog, twitter, FB, etc) mention it in your comment and each will count as another entry. I'll leave this one open through June 7th and select a random winner on June 8th. And yes, as always you can double dip with the Ravelry group to increase your chances as well. Just be sure to check back on June 8th or leave me some way to reach you if you win, Ravelry or twitter username is sufficient.

I'd love to hear what you think about the video and the colorways. These aren't in the shop yet because it's disgustingly, unseasonably hot out, but I hope to take pictures and get them listed before the week is out. I have a bunch of new colorways to go up as well and there's still a bit of a backlog from the winter, so there's plenty to keep my busy.

Keep cool and thanks for a great second year! I have high hopes for Year Three!

A poll and dinner

So I'm planning to do a demo/tutorial on my dye technique and I'd like to tape it on Saturday. I'm not sure what colorway to show, so I've put a poll in the sidebar to the right ---->. If you have an opinion, please fill it out!

Meanwhile, here I am blogging my dinner again. I tried this thing where I baked chicken pieces on a bed of lentils and liked it so much that tonight I tried it again with a slightly different configuration. It's good enough to record for posterity, although there was no measuring involved. So this is more of a notion of a technique than an actual recipe.


Boneless chicken baked on a bed of lentils, served with rice and kabocha pumpkin.

Things of thinginess

First things first, the recipient of May's shrinky dink giveaway is Sarah of Slinging Stitches! I liked all the posts, it reminded me of all the crafty things I haven't picked up in ages, as well as a few messes I used to make for the fun of it. :D

It's still spring here, and for proof that it's May we had a tiny morel harvest on Friday. Three, we found three morels. Actually, I found a big one off the driveway near where I found several last year, but the entire top had been bitten off by something so I hardly think that it counts. These three were in an entirely different spot at the base of a rotted out stump that had been filled in with dirt.


Since there were only three, I ended up making a mushroom side dish with additional white button mushrooms and some fresh shitake mushrooms. I cut them all up and sauteed them with lots of garlic in olive oil with a bit of thyme and freshly cracked black pepper. It never ceases to amaze me how small morels shrivel when cooked, yet still retain a kind of crunchy texture.

Meanwhile, today I made a lunch of crepes and I like to record recipes when I tamper with them. These crepes were whole wheat and are quite robust in tooth. They're not exactly the delicate buttery things that most people anticipate when promised crepes, but I like them. I think they would be better with a savory filling but we had them with strawberries and whipped cream.

Strawberries were dressed with agave syrup and a bit of cognac, and the whipped cream was lightly sweetened with agave syrup as well.

Recipe after the jump.

Slightly less bad for you chocolate chip cookies

A small baking and knitting post tonight.

I'm constantly on the lookout for cookies that are satisfying but have some sort of redeeming dietary merit. So I took a chocolate chip cookie recipe and changed a few things and I liked the result enough to record the recipe here. These cookies still have butter and sugar in them, but they also have fiber, iron, whole grains, and protein.



1c (2 sticks) butter, about 1/4 melted.
1c (200g) sugar
1/4c (80g) dark molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2c (280g) white whole wheat flour
1/2c (24g) bran (wheat or oat)
1c (90g) rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp cinnamon
1c chocolate chips
1/2c raisins
1/4c toasted sesame seeds
1tbsp toasted flax seeds

Cream together the butter and sugar and then stir in the molasses, vanilla, and eggs one by one until it's thoroughly blended together. Stir together the dry ingredients and then mix them into the butter mixture until thoroughly combined.

Drop by heaping tablespoons full 3 inches apart onto pans lined with baking parchment and bake in a 375°F oven until deep golden brown. They will be soft to the touch. Cool on a rack before storing. The cookies remain soft and slightly cakey once cool. Makes about 4 dozen.

Substitution is the name of the game, of course, so butter subs, egg subs, sugar subs can all be worked in. As it is this recipe is soft enough to accept more solid things like chopped nuts that won't change the essential nature of the dough. Additional oatmeal would result in a firmer cookie, but it should be able to accept another half cup of rolled oats without becoming hard.

Meanwhile, back at the knitting, I'm working on a modified Arabesque top, translating it into a dress with a different yarn at a denser gauge. I finished the waistband tonight and I'm very chuffed at how it's turning out. Yes, I know it's nothing more than a ring of cabled fabric. What can I say, I like that ring of cabled fabric! Aside from the tension difference in the rows around the graft, I think the join is decently invisible.


Considering that I'm not normally a sweater knitter and I prefer working in DK to worsted weight, this is a bit of a departure for me. Of course I would decide to break that trend with a dress knit at 7.25st/in. But I'm excited and I think it might even look flattering on (once I offer concessions to self consciousness and toss a light linen shirt over it like a jacket or knit a shrug). So I'm not going to examine this urge too closely but feed it for as long as I can, because I really want to wear this! :D

Spring has sprung! (and a childish giveaway)

It's sprung all over my car if the thick chartreuse layer of pollen is anything to go by. But it has gotten very pretty out.


This is looking up the hill to one side of the house. A downed tree back near the white dogwood has allowed a lot more light into that part of the woods, which is why that white dogwood is so full. The pink flowering tree in front is a redbud.

The tulips are almost past due to some extra hot days, but these pink and white ones called "Angelina" (not the fiber!) are hanging on and looking very festive. They're almost like roses.


It's most definitely May. Of course, May 1 means a giveaway here on my little blog. I was fooling around with shrink film last week and feeling like a kid again, so I've decided that this month I'm giving away shrinky dink plastic film. Yeah, you heard me right. I used to cut down those plastic clamshell packaging for things like baked goods and stuff and shrink them in the toaster oven, but in this case I have the "real thing".


That's 6 sheets of frosted shrink film, one sheet of opaque white inkjet shrink plastic (not pictured), some pre-punched circles, and a box of colored pencils.

They're suitable for making all sorts of knickknacks, and there's nothing easier for personalized stitch marker charms. Colored pencil is permanent once the pieces are shrunk and the color remains bright and vivid and won't transfer. Just make sure to punch a hole (1/8in or bigger) for the jump ring before shrinking the plastic down!


To enter, please comment here with something crafty you enjoyed doing as a kid, and if you still like doing it. I'll randomly pick a winner next Saturday, May 7th. This month's Rav group giveaway is identical, but as always it's fine to enter both.

Happy May!

A day late and a...n update!

First things first, I should have done this yesterday but I was figuratively snowed in under digital photographs. The recipient of this month's giveaway of itty bitty needles and yarn miniskeins is Rebecca! I'll be emailing.

Meanwhile, back at this also figurative ranch, I have finally updated the shop again, and will continue to do so as I can get the pictures done. Not with the entire backlog, that's still overflowing. I have pictures for a few more things including Silksheep fiber and some Arctic Hare, and I want to get that done asap. Still, I've listed the entire backlog of Jackrabbit. It feels really good to have 6oz skeins back in the shop.

I'm still amused by the Cobalt colorway in Jackrabbit.

I did a few "looks like a semisolid even if it isn't" in what could be considered a straight "color" instead of a "colorway" for the festival last autumn. Mostly for completeness' sake because I always have big gaps in my spectrum. Of course no one paid any attention to those colorways. I should really stick with my strengths and leave the rainbows to other people.

Still, I'm rather proud of Cobalt as I think it manages to capture that almost cadet blue of the lighter portions but the inky purple tones in the deep parts that cobalt colored glass has. Well, depending on what one considers cobalt blue, of course.

More nattering under the jump cut.

A day that can't be misconstrued as a bad joke (and yes, a giveaway)

April fools' day is one of those days I enjoy but also find a little dismaying. On the other hand, the ouroboros of irony in this Reddit prank is sort of amusing, if only that the second pick for "most boring video" was a knitting tutorial. I think a link to This Is Handmade would have been more appropriate.

Then there was this:

This was around 10am yesterday and it snowed for hours. It was all gone by the evening after it warmed up and rained, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to wake up to!

I was also out all day yesterday having a delightful fibery time with some far flung friends. By the time I got home this blog post just wouldn't coalesce, (a cocktail might have contributed to this fact). But I have a giveaway to give! This month I'm giving away something a little quirky, to go along with April 1 (a date which I've now avoided).

This month, I'm giving away this:

No, not the plate. Look closer. I swear there's something there sitting on the yarn. Really! OK, it's a set of double pointed needles I bought from China a few years ago. They're a set of 4 steel needles about 9.5in long, size 16. This size 16 is, I believe, from the old UK scale and so these needles fall between size 00/1.75mm and size 000/1.5mm. I'm also including the 5 mini-skeins of assorted sock yarn in a mostly blue palette. Just in case the idea of knitting with 1.6mm needles is daunting, you know?

When I was in Shanghai I would see women knitting elaborate single colored sweaters in the round on long dpns like these or longer, with one or more strands of lace weight yarn. The smallest sized needles I could find were 18s. Since I was running around with a short US#7/4.5mm circular needle and a heavy worsted weight yarn, I felt very fish out of water.

The knitters were often sitting outside their booths in assorted marketplaces, and I once saw a woman winding yarn with a vertical wire swift. Most of the yarns being sold in the markets were unlabeled and in big hanks sorted by fiber content. This was very different from the yarn and fabric shop I visited where everything was in a glass case or in boxes along the wall, looking very much like the balled yarns we see here, and with heavier weights available.

I'm going to let this one run through Friday, April 8th, and I'll pick a random winner on Saturday. This time around I'd like to hear a story about yarn craft in public, either your own or seeing someone working on something in public. Comment here with a story or anecdote to be added to the drawing! And yes, double dipping with this month's Ravelry group giveaway is fine. And remember to leave a way for me to reach you if you've won.