long time no post

My goodness, it’s been a long time since I posted here! I went through a non-crafty period for awhile – I got engaged, moved, and trained for and completed a half-marathon, which took a lot of time and energy. But lately, I’ve been feeling the pull of craftiness again.

I recently plied some yarn that I spun – I still have to soak it to set the twist, but otherwise it’s done. My biggest worry is that it will untwist. It’s not very much – maybe enough for a coffee cup cozy or something – but I’m still proud of it.

I also made a pie on Sunday, from discount apples that were about to go bad. Some of them were too mushy to use so I composted them, but I managed to salvage about 80% of them. I hadn’t made a pie in a long time. It was darn tasty. I think it was the best pie crust I’ve ever made, and I’m sure it was due to the fact that I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter in instead of rubbing it in with my fingers the way I normally do. This kept the butter pieces colder, thus they melded into the crust less, which in turn was more flaky and tender. Alan said it was the best pie he ever had. I felt like such a domestic goddess!

Cherry vodka

Back from Ontario! I sure didn’t get as much crafting done on the road as I’d planned – I think I did one inch of a sock and that was it. Too much vacationing to be done.

Tonight I hosted a Craft Circle, started knitting a case for my sunglasses and cut up some cherries to make cherry-infused vodka. They’re macerating in some sugar right now, and tomorrow I’ll go get a bottle of vodka and mix it all together. I’m riffing off my friend Dave’s strawberry vodka recipe, which is delicious.

On the road

Haven’t updated this blog for awhile!

Quick recap of the Arts Fest -  I sold about 1/2 my inventory, making about $140 above my table fee. I was very happy with that. My table partner did well too, especially since her prices were rock-bottom – $14 for a hand-knit wool hat, done with lace stitch in fingering weight yarn!!!! No way I could knit fast enough to charge that little.  Anyway, it was a fun day.

Alan and I are heading to Ontario for 2 weeks on Saturday. I’m planning to do some knitting in the car – socks and baby hats, probably. It’ll be relaxing to knit after all the frenzied sale item production. I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about the various kind of crafts and how they travel:

Good travel projects: Knitting and crocheting are great travel crafts, provided you’re working on something small. Most airlines are ok with knitting needles now, but it’s a good idea to bring some extra yarn and a plastic yarn needle so you can thread your stitches onto something if your needles do happen to get confiscated. I’ve flown with knitting a bunch of times and never had a problem, but you never know.

I like to pack my knitting project into a makeup case, along with a plastic yarn needle, a bit of waste yarn, and a photocopy of the pattern (don’t bring the heavy book). If travelling by car, add scissors (they’ll get confiscated on an airplane).

Embroidery  is nice to bring along too, or any kind of hand-sewing project.

One thing I recommend is to have a project in mind before setting out on your trip. I’ve just thrown a bunch of yarn and needles in my bag, intending to make something up, only to realize I didn’t have the right size needles, or enough yarn, or couldn’t remember how to make a certain stitch, so I spent my traveling time with no project and a bunch of wasted space in my travel bag. Planning is key.

Bad travel projects: Beads are a pain in the ass while traveling – the beads spill and roll and if you go over any bumps or turbulence, you’ll drop them. Generally, anything requiring lots of little pieces is a bad idea. So is anything involving liquids (paint, glue), that requires you to wash your hands, or that produces smells. Unless you have very, very steady hands and don’t mind getting stabbed in the fingers, I don’t recommend needle felting either. Drawing is a good idea in theory, but again, bumps and turbulence will cause unpredictable results.

Here comes the arts fest

Tomorrow is the street fair…

I never have any idea if my stuff is going to sell or not, because I rarely sell the same things ( I think that will be changing as I do more fairs). I think the worst I ever did was when I was selling quilted pillows and magnets, and the best was magnets/record bowls/cat toys/bath stuff/bags. This time I have jewelery, and some magnets. Magnets seem to be a constant in my repertoire, I guess because it’s nice to have a little thing that people can just spend a buck on. I have wire rings for that purpose as well this time. We shall see, I guess!

well…

I didn’t get as much done this weekend as I wanted to, but I did manage to dye a bunch more wool roving – pink and purple this time. On Sunday I had planned to spend the whole afternoon with my felting tools, but I got a delivery of a bunch of raspberry bushes ripped out of a friend’s yard that had to be planted immediately, so that took most of the afternoon.

I wanted to put the bushes in the backyard near the fence, but first I had to clear the area of a big pile of dead weeds, sticks, grass clippings, etc. that I’d been piling there for the past 2 summers. I started raking the stuff aside, and when I’d gone down about 5 inches, I started to run into lovely brown dirt – it’s amazing how organic material will break down and transform itself if you just pile it and leave it. I was really happy – I made dirt! Without even trying! Good thing too, since the soil I was planning to plant in was solid clay/rock.

Another bonus: as I was digging into the newly-made dirt, I heard a furious buzzing sound. I was scared I’d dislodged a wasp’s nest, so I backed off and looked, and from the buzzing spot rose a lone honeybee. It flew around the dirt for awhile, then made for the lilac blossoms.

I started two new dirt piles – one beside the lilac tree, and one behind the fence.

felt

Here are a couple of the pairs of earrings I’ve been making for sale:

They’re needle felted from merino wool, and then hung on ear wires with wrapped silver-plate wire. I quite like them – they’re big and fun but, since they’re made of wool, they’re very light.

Only a week till the Cathedral Arts Festival. I have a lot to do.

My brand-new blog

Hi all! Sunday Brunch is the name of my new li’l craft business, and I wanted to have a blog so that I could record and share my projects. My work is for sale through my etsy shop; feel free to go have a poke around.

I chose the name Sunday Brunch because of the feeling that it evokes in me – the delicious sense of waking up late with sunlight pouring through the window, and the knowledge that you have absolutely nothing to do except go out for a delicious, leisurely meal. It’s a way of making an ordinary day special, and that’s the feeling I want to project with my jewelery, baubles and accessories.