Crafty Peru

 We recently returned from a trip to Peru.  What a beautiful country!  We were only there for 10 days so barely scratched the surface.  We spent 2 days in Lima and walked all over Miraflores (I see flowers, one of the more affluent neighbourhoods) and also went on a bus/walking tour of old Lima.  We saw many great things but my favourite was the Love Park.  Walls like the ones in the photo covered with tiles and messages of love snake through the park and surround a statue of a couple sharing a passionate kiss.  The park overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is really fun.

After Lima we flew to Cuzco, got altitude sickness, took the pills and felt better, then went on to the Sacred Valley.  The Sacred Valley, besides being lovely countryside, is the home to several Inca ruins - we stopped at 2.  More on that in a later post.  It was also home to a little village that had a little demonstration of yarn dying, knitting and weaving.  Gap Adventures sponsors the village and brings tours in.  One woman showed us how the yarn was dyed.  The bowl below is crushed bugs.  The yarn shown here was dyed with crushed bugs plus additives like lemon juice and salt.

 The women were also spinning with drop spindles, knitting and weaving.  I, in geek-like fashion, pulled out my knitting to show them too.

There was also, of course, a market where they had lovely finished products.  We bought a few things and thoroughly enjoyed talking to the ladies.  We realized quickly that they were very good at sales!  One young girl had an extremely cute puppy which they skillfully incorporated into the sales process.  I loved every minute of this place and could have stayed longer but we were on a schedule.

The baskets to the right show various fibres by degree of softness - from left to right - vicuna, baby alpaca, alpaca and sheep.  As a knitter, I'm obviously already pretty attuned to the hand feel of yarns but I haven't really spent any time with the raw fibre and touching them one after another really highlighted the differences in softness.

I didn't see much yarn for sale on my trip - mostly finished goods in the tourist-focused places we visited.  But I did manage to buy enough dk weight for a sweater and a couple of nice skeins of a variegated yarn that will be perfect for a scarf.  As I said, we barely scratched the surface.  I'm sure there was more yarn to be found and next trip will find it!

Amy Butler gone awry?

I love Amy Butler fabrics. I didn't at first but they snuck up on me and now I think they are great. With my last quilting venture (very small because I was at least awake enough to realize the crazy blend of patterns and colours I was creating), I got a little carried away. Not to say I don't like the end product but it is a bit of a shock to the senses. After I'd sewn it together I thought that it might have been a little less crazy if I had put strips of some nice quiet solid between the blocks. But who wants to rip everything out? I blame Kaffe Fasset's thousand colour quilts that manage to look great! He makes it look so easy. The pattern is from one of his books. I would link to it but was out way too late last night at a murder mystery party and am uninterested in leaving my vegetative state in front of the computer!

Best Hangover Ever

I finally found a quilt that made sense with my stash of yellow and blue Mark Lipinski fabric. It's inspired by Denise Shmidt's Drunk Love in a Log Cabin but I made up the pattern as I went along. It was actually very fun not to have

to be exact with the corners. And I really like this fabric. I stippled it with a yellow thread and I think it turned out very nicely.

I'm very excited a sock club Kristen and Natalie and I are organizing. We're getting bored of knitting the same basic sock pattern over and over again and want to use up some stash (although I think this actually gives me an excuse to buy some yarn since I'm not sure I have 6 skeins lying around the house). We're each going to find 2 patterns each and get going on one a month for 6 months. This will be a bit of a challenge for me in between a heavy curling schedule and Christmas knitting but that's half the fun. I think.

It's a good thing I like the colours

I'm working on a quilt right now that is waaaaaaay too annoying. It is a Kaffe Fassett diamonds quilt and it is driving me crazy. I quite enjoy Kaffe Fassett's books but there is sort of an expectation in them that you know what you are doing. Generally, this works for me but I can't figure out how to line up the diamond corners. I've looked on the web and can't find any ideas. Maybe I'll go over to my local quilt shop and get some advice. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I love the fabrics. Mostly Kaffe Fassett but some others I had in the stash. I've told myself to do one row a week and work on something else in between.

The something else today might be these cute Christmas trees first seen on Mad About Patchwork. I discovered this online store and blog on Friday at the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. I went after work and, thanks to my friend Natalie, paid 1/2 price for the entry.

I sped through the booths. Lots of paper crafting, which I like but tend to avoid or I'd have yet another stash problem. Lots of sewing machines but while those at the show are certainly fancy and can probably make coffee, mine works just fine.

There wasn't much knitting. Even less than last year, I would guess. The quilting booths were nice but I didn't find too much that stood out. I did buy some Japanese prints from Kallisti, a company I bought some Zimbabwean fabrics from last year (still in my collection waiting for inspiration). And I bought a pretty kit from Mad About Patchwork. The positive thing about speeding through the show ... since I don't linger, I don't spend too much money!

Les Croissants

Today (or rather over the last 3 days), I made croissants. They are a little browner than they should be but, man, are they good.

The recipe is from Fine Cooking magazine - the Feb/Mar 2009 issue - and is quite easy, and despite 3 days of steps, not very time consuming. The first day is less than 20 minutes (other than the part where I had to make the dough twice because after kneading the first batch, I noticed the softened butter sitting on the stove ... kind of an important ingredient in a croissant. I did try to whirl it into the already kneaded dough but it wasn't accepting it. It turned out a big greasy mess and so with a curse, went into the compost pail and a new batch was made).

Like with all bread-type recipes, you just have to find a time when you can be around the house at key points over the 3 days to get the steps done. Day 2 was the most labour intensive and today had the longest total time. The most difficult part was the rolling out after the second 20 minute freeze on day 2. The dough was quite resistant to the rolling pin but perseverance paid off in the end.

The dough itself is fantastic to work with. I loved the texture on my hands as I was working with it. It's very smooth and doesn't stick to anything. The finished product is flaky and crumbly and oh so tasty. I made a salad for lunch (mainly so I wouldn't eat all 15 croissants) and enjoyed one on the side. Now I'm going to have one for dessert with homemade strawberry jam. Bliss awaits!

Latest Projects

I am really in love with the patterns in Made in Brooklyn by Jared Flood. So far I've made these three projects and have loved them all. The patterns have enough challenge that they keep me interested and wanting to keep going rather than bouncing to the next project. I did knit one mitt twice, the second time on bigger needles. A big failing; I don't generally check the tension on small projects. It backfired on the mitts. I had to go up another needle size or wear slightly tight mittens which in the middle of winter might not have been so nice. I would say the green tam was my favourite of all these. I'm not sure a tam really is my thing but it was definitely fun to knit and when it's really cold outside the level of caring whether it really suits or not declines dramatically! I could give it to someone for Christmas I suppose but the only person on my shopping list who might like it goes to Florida for the winter so probably wouldn't need it.

Anyway, next up is the shawl from the book and there are a couple of sweaters I am thinking about. I'd really like to finish a couple of sweaters on the needles before I get to those though. I am really trying to reduce the buried in yarn and fabric feeling by finishing some projects. Completely exciting yarn, fabric, patterns will still be at the store for me later. It might be different yarn, fabric and patterns but still just as exciting as the stuff I see now. I will keep repeating that to myself and see what happens.

Also a big first for me yesterday. I made a great chicken braise from the book All About Braising which I bought to go with my fantastic new braising pot. The first wasn't the braise. The first was lighting brandy on fire. I've always been intimidated by this when I've come across it in recipes, and ignored the instruction, but actually did it this time. Quite the flame and I hadn't yet read the part of the instructions where it said the flame would last for a couple of minutes so I was a bit worried when it did. But of course, it extinguished itself after about a minute and I continued on. Very fun.

Baby Socks

I've been in a serious stash reduction frame of mind for quite a while now. I haven't really been achieving this reduction at any great pace but am using the hot summer as an excuse.

I did come up with a way to use up some left-over sock yarn ... baby socks. Obvious, fun, quick and very cute. Here's what I did with regular sock yarn. I think these both came from the Sweet Sheep but as is the beauty of stash, I have no idea what yarn they are made of. I used 2.75mm double pointed needles.

Cast on 36 stitches

Rib - k2, p2 until desired length is reached (mine are 3 1/2" long - this is enough length to fold them down or leave them long).

Work the first 18 stitches, leaving the remainder on a holder, as follows:

Row 1 - (sl, k1, sl, k1) repeat until all 18 stitches have been worked. Turn

Row 2 - purl. Turn

Repeat these last 2 rows until 18 rows have been worked

Row 19 - repeat row 1

Turn heel

Row 1 - sl1, p12, p2tog

Row 2 - sl1, k8, slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over (skp)

Row 3 - sl1, p8, p2tog

Row 4 - sl1, k8, skp

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until 8 stitches remain

Pick up and knit 9 stitches down side of heel

Knit the stitches on holder (or maintain the ribbing pattern on the top of the foot)

Pick up and knit 9 stitches up the side of the heel

Knit 5 stitches from the heel - the middle of the heel is now the new beginning for the row.

Readjust stitches on needles as follows: 14 stitches on N1, 18 stitches on N2 and 14 stitches on N3

Now start the foot:

Row 1:

N1 - Knit until 3 stitches remain - ssk, k1

N2 - Pattern across 18 stitches

N3 - Knit 1, K2tog, knit until the end

Row 2:

Pattern around the needles with no decreases

Repeat these two rows until there are 9 stitches each on N1 and N3.

Continue in pattern until approx. 3 1/4" is completed

Work toe:

Row 1:

N1 - Knit until 3 stitches remain - ssk, k1

N2 - Knit 1, K2 tog, knit until 3 stitches remain - ssk, k1

N3 - K2 tog, knit to end

Row 2:

Knit around without decreasing

Repeat the last 2 rows until 16 stitches remain. Knit 8 stitches from needle 1 on to needles 3 to divide these evenly on 2 needles.

Graft the toe.

Sew in ends and enjoy.