In current issue of BY HAND Magazine, Food Editor Lisa Richey has created a recipe for what I like to call a Lazy Person’s Strawberry Pie. That’s because a galette is much easier to make than a pie, but everyone will think it’s fancy-fancy because it is delicious and has a French name.
Mascarpone cheese, brown sugar and strawberries. Please tell me what’s wrong with any of that?
As soon as I saw this pattern, I knew I was going to make it. And I’m not pro-cowl. I’m not anti-cowl, but I just didn’t think that it would work for me. I don’t like the sensation of wearing a turtle neck and a cowl seemed just like a turtle neck. But way back when the JMF rav group (the “aunties”) were doing a cowl swap, I started to feel like maybe a cowl could actually be something I’d enjoy. And when Susie handed off Susan Lawrence’s Uki Cowl pattern for me to ready for publication, I knew I had to make it.
And make it I did! And now I’m apparently a cowl-wearer! I liked making the cowl so much, I made up a Hattie Cowl as a gift. I like that this cowl is open, so it’s perfect for this late spring in New England, or a summer air-conditioned office.
It uses two different needle sizes and dropped stitches in order to create the oversized stitches. I’d never worked a drop stitch pattern before and found it was a little scary and a lot of fun to drop the stitches! In fact, Monday’s WIP post will feature how to work this pattern.
You can find the Uki Cowl here, or as always, on the Sabine Free Pattern page.
A special thank you to my extremely talented friend David Costa for the wonderful pictures of me in the blue Uki Cowl. Jodie Carson took the pictures of the green Uki Cowl.
UPDATE: You can find my drop stitch tutorial right here!
- by Joan -
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Tagged flowers, Photographs, photoshop
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My mama was driving to Houston on this morning and she passed the most enormous field of sunflowers she had ever seen. She called me from the car to tell me about it. Since it was only an hour or so away from Fort Worth, I grabbed my camera and headed south, even though it was raining like crazy.
I can’t begin to describe the vastness of these fields except to say that there are many thousands of acres. It was almost too big for my brain to take in, sort of like seeing the ocean for the very first time after a lifetime in the desert.
Just as I arrived the rain stopped, and I spent the next half hour very carefully picking my way through the field, trying to capture just a little bit of the magic I felt being there.
Just as I was heading back to the car, the skies opened up and it started absolutely pouring. I drove home soaked to the bone, covered in mud, and happier than I’ve been in a long time.
There is magic in this world. You just have to look for it.
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Tagged everything else
So more than a few people have wondered what exactly goes on behind the scenes of the commercial yarn line. Since we’re getting ready for Spring/Summer 2014 (Yup! We’re working more than a year ahead of when the yarn will be released!) and it’s my first season working full time for JMF, I thought I’d share the process with you. The feature will be sporadic. There might be a month in which I only mention it once, and as we gear up for the photo shoot, there will be more and more say until finally the release!
Months ago Susie met with the wonderful folks at Knitting Fever, who distribute our yarn. They looked at which of our yarn is popular and we’d like to continue producing, as well as what new yarn we should bring to the market. Susie got to feel different samples of the new yarn to see what it looked like and what kind of handle it has. They make sure that the blend is just right. For example, one of our Fall/Winter 2013 yarns is a blend. They talked about at what percentage the characteristics of each blend really shine. Can they fiddle with it to save money? And the answer was no. The blend is just right where it is and to tip the balance to save money would produce an inferior yarn – which neither KFI nor JMF want to do! So the balance stays as sampled.
Then Susie flew home and collected images to create a mood board. A mood board sets the tone (or mood) for the collection. It gives a feeling and maybe a style that speaks to Susie and hopefully will speak to designers. I don’t want to give too much away about Spring/Summer 2014, but here’s the Fall/Winter 2013 Mood Board:
You can see that for this season, Susie was heavily influences by PBS shows set during WWII. It has a vintage charm and a slightly European feel to it. We use these boards to help communicate with others what the yarn and patterns should feel like. In fact, I used the Spring/Summer 2014 yarn boards as part of the call for pattern designs that I created.
Susie then spent time pouring over color choices for each of the yarn lines and working to create a cohesive collection. One where you can hopefully pick up a ball of yarn in any color in the collection and find a perfect mate for it. This is trickier than you think and sometimes we might end up with two different color collections within the color choices.
And that brings us up to present with the Spring / Summer 2014 yarns. I’m currently gathering design submissions for the yarn so that we can select designers to create the patterns. I’ve already hired a designer and rehired our fantastic tech editor (more about what she does in the the future!), but right now we are mostly waiting to see what people come up with. It’s a big job designing 8 patterns to submit to a yarn company and we can’t wait to see what people come up with! (If you’re seriously interested in designing a collection for JMF, you can email me at lauria AT fiberfarm DOT com.)
Where are we for Fall/Winter 2013? Well, Susie and I are very busy preparing for the photo shoot. I’ve got dozens of beautifully knit samples hanging out with me waiting for the rest of their sample friends which are trucking it from all over the country (and one from our friends to the north – Canada!). In a couple of weeks I’ll give you a sneak peak look at the Fall/Winter 2013 photo shoot! Then Susie and I will be at TNNA in Columbus, Ohio to present the Fall/Winter yarn line to those within the industry before the public release in July or August.
PS – we do have a winner for the Tenzing guessing game contest. I’ll be emailing her today, but we can’t tell you who was right until it’s time to release the yarn! I will say that I’m very impressed with your guesses and some of them might even give us a new idea for Fall/Winter 2014!
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Tagged Behind the Yarn
What makes you choose the books you read?
Genre? Reviews? Certain authors? Covers? Recommendations?
Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!
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Tagged Wordpress
Last week, I was on vacation. The week before that I kind of took a vacation from the blog as well, and I have been kind of slow getting back to it. I have been thinking of you all, but things like farmers markets and Harry Potter movie marathon have got in the way. (Did I mention I made an Athrun-friendly version of Butterbeer?) Since we have no extra money to speak of, and I generally find travelling stressful enough to need a second vacation, I stayed home, slept in, probably drank too much wine, and made things.
Minerva in a baby Sweater
As mentioned in the previous post, I knit a baby sweater, and as promised, Brock put it on the cat. She is asleep in this picture, so deeply so that she allowed herself to be posed.
I do think magenta and orange are her colors, don’t you?
While that was a fun little lark and it kept my hands busy in the evenings, in reality, I really spent the better part of three days sewing. The first project was the cute little tote bag in the previous post. The second was another handbag, for me to actually use.
The Reversible Bucket Bag
This is the second pattern in The Bag Making Bible and the bag featured on the cover–a big part of the reason I wanted to buy the book. I am very smug with myself that I finally managed to sew it. It’s not perfect. The seams are a little more crooked than I used to sew, and I pretty much made up how to attach the bias tape because the instructions in the book were too dense, but I really like how it came out. I especially like the fabric–the perfect mood and combination of patterns. I generally find pattern combinations (like the one on the cover-ay yi yi yi) in books like these to be a bit to bold for my taste, but I was able to find some patterns that I though complimented each other instead of fought for space. (They were all quilting cotton from JoAnn.)
I am especially in love with the silver calico I chose for the lining. It’s so special, it’s only for me. (Yes, while the bag is technically reversible, I don’t plan to use it that way.)
Spending some time sewing this past week, I learned something important about myself. While knitting and spinning are productive, enjoyable ways to spend my time, I can perform them while doing other things: listening to an audio book, watching tv, socializing. Those fiber arts don’t take my full attention (most of the time). When I sew, however, I jump head first into a deep, dark tunnel from which I may not emerge hours, days, or weeks, and if anyone comes in looking to find me, they are likely to get bitten. Seriously, hours passed in what seemed like minutes, and I had no idea. As I shake the rust off my old sewing hinges, I think it unlikely that this mindset will change. Hopefully it will take me fewer hours overall, but I seem to be capable of sewing with a single-mindedness I seldom spare for any other activity–and it scares me enough that I realize I won’t be allowing myself to descend into that sort of madness too often. But don’t expect this handbag to the last sewing project you see on this blog.
And a teaser:
Wedding invitations have been produced, assembled, and mailed. Next time, what’s in the envelope and how we made them.
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Tagged bag making bible, cat in a sweater, crafting, In The Works, Inspiration, Knitting, newborn vertebra, Sewing, vacation
Recently my daughter Patty gave me this gift cardfor a mother/daughter trip into NYC to Greenwich Village. Here we are on the train on the brilliantly beautiful morning of Tuesday, June 4th.
We headed out of Penn Station to 5th Ave and began our journey to Greenwich Village and enjoying the architecture and sights along the way.
Marble Collegiate Church
The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York
The Flatiron Building
Not sure of the name of this building but it’s definitely eye catching…
Washington Square Arch and Washington Square Park…
Greenwich Village miscellaneous…
and thus we come to the end of our day 
Thank you Patty.
- by Joan -
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Tagged architecture, Family, New York, Photographs