tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14558044387747436072024-02-06T21:18:34.862-05:00UncraftyFor those of us who want to try new things or re-try old things, but have no idea what we're doing...cooking, gardening, crafts, you name it.Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-86965590553490992362012-08-20T21:53:00.005-04:002012-08-20T21:55:52.339-04:00Lazy Ramen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CUGD9Y/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001CUGD9Y&linkCode=as2&tag=lost094-20" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B001CUGD9Y&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost094-20" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meg shared <a href="http://www.kitchendaily.com/recipe/homemade-ramen-noodles-143255/" rel="nofollow">a pin</a> on Pinterest with me the other day that she was really excited about. A great, but simple ramen recipe that she ended up making the next night. We were talking about how expensive fresh noodles are and how you can just get a package of Top Ramen for 59 cents, toss the spice packet, add your own mix of sauces, veggies, meat, whatever and - voila. Seriously, why didn't I think of that? Loving her idea, but not liking some of the ingredients in the recipe she pinned, I decided to make a very dumbed-down version.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simple meal for when you're not feeling so hot on a rainy day (otherwise August is way too hot for ramen): Heat two cups of chicken broth on medium-high in a pot. When it starts bubbling, add one package of cheap-o ramen noodles (toss the MSG-filled spice packet). Break up the noodles (the broth may not cover them until you do), then add frozen corn and peas (small, so they cook quickly). Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat, but leave pot on stovetop. Season with a teensy bit of soy sauce and Sriracha Garlic Chili Sauce (or plain ol' Sriracha). Sometimes I'm not into the broth part so much and just put the soy and Sriracha on the drained noodles and veggies.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EO5ZHO/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001EO5ZHO&linkCode=as2&tag=lost094-20" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B001EO5ZHO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost094-20" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My oh my, how lazy I am. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Optional: fresh spinach, thinly sliced scallions, diced firm tofu, very thinly sliced fresh carrots and/or mushrooms, bite-size pieces of rotisserie chicken.</i></span></span></div>
Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-15634982343044148042012-08-17T20:27:00.000-04:002012-08-22T09:31:28.605-04:00Stumbling Uncraftily Along<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've heard mention of Stumble Upon for quite a while now. It's one of those things that I kept meaning to get around to, but then I'd get distracted by, you know - a puppy or something shiny, and forget. I finally took the time to check it out when I saw how many site views I get thanks to Stumble Upon. The majority of my new visitors come through that way, so of course I had to go see what people are on about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish I'd joined earlier. I really like this concept. There are so many things to read online and doing searches only gets you so far. It's nice to select your interests, click the Stumble button and get something fun to read or interact with. Here are some of the great sites that came up:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.the36thavenue.com/2011/11/25-handmade-gifts-under-5.html" rel="nofollow">The 36th Avenue</a>: This is a great site for DIY. Check out the 25 Handmade Gifts Under $5 - the mason jar sewing kit is fantastic and I want to make those sugar cubes for all my friends. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811867013/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0811867013&linkCode=as2&tag=lost094-20" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0811867013&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost094-20" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.sublimestitching.com/pages/tutorials" rel="nofollow">Sublime Stitching</a>: A site for embroidery, which I'm considering trying out once I've got crochet down enough to not immediately forget how to do it if I don't practice for a day. The How To page makes me believe I can actually do this. Even if I suck at it, I love <a href="http://www.sublimestitching.com/pages/who_we_are" rel="nofollow">these ladies</a> for being so dang positive about beginners. They have great starter kits on this site and one of the contributors, Jenny Hart, has written a bunch of embroidery books.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0789311992" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.incredibox.com/en/#/application" rel="nofollow">Incredibox</a>: I posted about this on <a href="http://lostgirlsdc.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-beat-box-kind-of-day.html">LostGirls</a>, but it deserves a mention on Uncrafty, as well. This is a fun, creative way to distract yourself, pass the time, or have your kids play around with melodies and beat-box rhythms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://everyonesmixtape.com/mxt/daeDjk8b9m/" rel="nofollow">Everyone's Mix Tape</a>: A great way to experience new music or just a new mix. My favorite is their Driving mix, great for your next road trip (or commute), but you can find a bunch of options (like Heartbreak, Late Night and Make Out) on the site.</span></div>
Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-6712876523289346312012-08-15T16:55:00.000-04:002012-08-15T16:55:05.644-04:00The Cult of the Kitchen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00622CY2C/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00622CY2C&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00622CY2C&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" width="200" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00622CY2C" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b></span></div>
<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mary, on Julia:</b><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375413405/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375413405&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0375413405&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.celsius1414.com/images/2008/08/julia_child_avec_un_poisson.jpg" rel="nofollow">Julia Child</a> taught me how to cook. Long before <a href="http://www.askmen.com/fine_living/wine_dine_archive_400/400_chefs-as-brands-on-the-man-menu-with-majumdar.html" rel="nofollow">celebrity</a> (and not so celebrity) chefs became popular on TV, there was Julia. <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/lost097-20/detail/0307593525">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</a> (Vol. 1) was the first cookbook I ever bought for myself. I spent a decade trying to master those techniques. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My original copy of that cookbook has disappeared into the void, and has now been replaced not once, but twice, but it still has pride of place among my cookbooks. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today, all these many years later, I still rely on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-we-can-eat/post/what-they-learned-from-julia-child/2012/08/14/167f6c0e-e581-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_blog.html" rel="nofollow">what I learned from her</a>.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jess, on Julia:</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The very first cookbook my mother bought for me was <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/lost097-20/detail/0375711856" rel="">Julia's Kitchen Wisdom</a>. A collection of "forty years of happy collaboration on cookery with colleagues and friends," this is the ultimate starter book for people who want to learn how to cook. In fact, if I could only own two cookbooks (which would certainly help me with storage issues), this would be my first pick (the second would be <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/lost097-20/detail/0764578650">Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything</a>, also given to me by my mom). </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the last few years, I was lucky enough to acquire my mom's copy of <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/lost097-20/detail/0679760059">In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs</a> - thanks to her move to Italy, which required her leaving more than half of her cookbooks behind in the states.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375711856/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375711856&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0375711856&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679760059/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679760059&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0679760059&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our affection for Julia Child is about more than just her excellent teaching methods when it comes to cookery. Julia was an inspiration. She wasn't glamorous, she didn't yearn for approval from her audience, she was fearless about being real and oh how <a href="http://wickwoodinn.com/fall09notebook/julia_child02a.jpg" rel="nofollow">she was cool</a>. Her friend <a href="http://www.dartagnan.com/99/profiles/Ariane-Daguin.html" rel="nofollow">Ariane Daguin</a> described her as the "pioneer who elevated good food to a higher priority in this country," and said, "I think that <a href="http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/08/14/13280454-julia-child-founded-cult-of-the-kitchen-her-friend-recalls" rel="nofollow">the cult of the kitchen</a> started with Julia. She made people want to cook, talk about food and challenge themselves in the kitchen." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Julia Child was a food pioneer, a fearless woman, a welcoming and joyful person, a cultural icon and an inspiration. Here is a true celebration of Julia, on what would have been her 100th birthday, from PBS:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>If you haven't had enough, hop on over to <a href="http://lostgirlsdc.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-culinary-revolutionary.html">LostGirls</a> for another Julia post.</i></span></div>
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Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-24612873943380440462012-08-07T11:10:00.000-04:002012-08-07T11:10:14.759-04:00Why Doesn't My Single Crochet Look Like Yours?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I discovered just last night that I have not been doing standard single crochet. What I've been doing isn't technically wrong - it <i>is</i> single crochet and I have completed four scarves already using it. However, I've been doing <a href="http://www.stitchdiva.com/tutorials/crochet/crochet-in-the-front-or-back-loops-of-a-stitch" rel="nofollow">single crochet through the front loop only</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can still make anything you like going through the front or back loop of a stitch, but it changes the texture. And here I kept wondering why my scarves were so stripey!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBeAq8mTfRJW_FZ0NZZjIpqphYAgKIz7mwNihQRgAiVxGkWNYVlFB-2RcFhdqPpS_UNs0Ykqq8IqOQCY8bYC-Ul9yuv7BSx-ZcLT_chcHjyIhXxcmcOFKLcsm-tX6_OHZPwVW9iDxRTG5/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBeAq8mTfRJW_FZ0NZZjIpqphYAgKIz7mwNihQRgAiVxGkWNYVlFB-2RcFhdqPpS_UNs0Ykqq8IqOQCY8bYC-Ul9yuv7BSx-ZcLT_chcHjyIhXxcmcOFKLcsm-tX6_OHZPwVW9iDxRTG5/s320/Uncrafy+Crochet+014.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Stripey and wonky!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyuFeJHHC9vhLsjFI2iOG22lGKMsHOLYEhnwz3ns_JvtJj-lBbkWU-m8qLScrT-espg1cqX57YUCcLxp6N6f1eZzlQMqR3bedPNn3EzV1p0EpH-rlqrqYZq_X42FfizBT9UEi14Fvpojj/s1600/Oops+Crochet+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyuFeJHHC9vhLsjFI2iOG22lGKMsHOLYEhnwz3ns_JvtJj-lBbkWU-m8qLScrT-espg1cqX57YUCcLxp6N6f1eZzlQMqR3bedPNn3EzV1p0EpH-rlqrqYZq_X42FfizBT9UEi14Fvpojj/s320/Oops+Crochet+002.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Not stripey...but still a bit wonky.</i></td></tr>
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</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-16739082778302447842012-08-01T15:12:00.003-04:002012-08-02T18:37:51.076-04:00Uncrafty Hands on The Thinnest Skin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoF9wNrHKCdjZtHwsJFurzEr81KhFzenkF-Xiebg72vcyyB5BirMu4VfhKn-mshrRt7tqeAgp3yS-XzAdAtKRXxQXy4qnuRheUjUAB04tez9h0qdPe8bGrBlq6D5t3PXB8PMCbHrB2zd2d/s1600/Birds+%2526+Crochet+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoF9wNrHKCdjZtHwsJFurzEr81KhFzenkF-Xiebg72vcyyB5BirMu4VfhKn-mshrRt7tqeAgp3yS-XzAdAtKRXxQXy4qnuRheUjUAB04tez9h0qdPe8bGrBlq6D5t3PXB8PMCbHrB2zd2d/s640/Birds+%2526+Crochet+010.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">As those of you who read </span><a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #0f8e6f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">Uncrafty</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"> know, I learned to crochet in July. I am really excited about being able to </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">make things. </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">In fact, I crochet any time that I can - watching TV, waiting for something to bake in the oven, while on the phone, etc. Because I have sensitive skin, some of the yarns I've used have irritated my hands and, as all crafters know, yarn and other media will suck the moisture right out of your skin. <b>[<a href="http://thinskindc.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-poor-uncrafty-hands.html">read more...</a>]</b></span></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-82338703184818212262012-07-30T21:20:00.004-04:002012-07-30T21:26:05.635-04:003 1/2 Scarves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I haven't continued with my Craftsy Crochet Lab class this week, but only because I have someone teaching me in person and she, unfortunately, is going back home this week. I have to take advantage of her mad crochet skills while I still can! I still love and recommend the Craftsy class and am planning on taking more as my skills progress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So far I've made three scarves using single stitch crochet. Because it's the only one I currently know. I'm getting used to how to hold the yarn and the hook (there's no one right way, trust me), as well as figuring out which style of hook I like. Because I hold far too much tension in my hands, I prefer hooks that have a thicker handle. There are a variety out there, but I chose from the slim selection at my local crafts store. My current favorite is by <a href="http://thecrochetdudepatterns.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">The Crochet Dude</a>. I love <a href="http://www.simplicity.com/p-7783-the-crochet-dude-aluminum-crochet-hook-size-i.aspx" rel="nofollow">this hook</a>'s </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">thick, padded handle. At some point, I'd still like to try the Addi ones that have a wide, curved handle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. I can work with the standard skinny hooks, but I simply prefer not to. I know that you can get rubbery grips to slip over them and I've heard there are adapters (I guess you would call them) for people who have arthritis and need a much larger, rounder handle, so I'll have to check all of that out, as well. </span><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004I1OX0U" style="background-color: white; border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important; text-align: center;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">I chose to try a few different yarns, as well, to see how I feel about them. When I first started, the only one I could use was the Caron One Pound I originally bought. The acrylic is a bit scratchy and I have no desire to wear it (super sensitive skin), but it holds its shape really well and doesn't split, making it a perfect yarn to learn with. I made a few samples and then a long scarf the acrylic and decided that it's going to be the yarn I turn to whenever I learn anything knew in crochet. So when I go back to my Craftsy class and do the first project, which I believe is going to be a crocheted electronics case, I'll use the acrylic to learn on. My experience making the scarves was that after enough practice on the acrylic, I felt more comfortable using the Bamboo Ewe I'd bought, then trying out a random lone skein of Noro Cash Iroha that I found in one of my moving boxes from my mom's wealth of yarn that got left behind when she moved to Italy. The Cash Iroha is the silkiest I've come across in the many boxes of yarn I have in my garage, but it isn't the easiest to work with. But the Bamboo Ewe is only soft in comparison to the acrylic and some skeins of wool I found. Another type I'm favoring for its feel alone is alpaca, but the particular skeins I have are very thin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are the three scarves I completed this past week:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7G1lSUykr6dsiNGq9ORcNGjKNQiODxMtbOupuRZLdc_ekg9UdpUQ0XZZAofBHSLf5fVc8raUPv-1xJbD6kaXR_g1QQBW825Bk6kZzCJdRV6FX5tr7jVHC2rMn3DCjR6wGKfHfIBhXjKcD/s1600/Uncrafty+Crochet+2+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7G1lSUykr6dsiNGq9ORcNGjKNQiODxMtbOupuRZLdc_ekg9UdpUQ0XZZAofBHSLf5fVc8raUPv-1xJbD6kaXR_g1QQBW825Bk6kZzCJdRV6FX5tr7jVHC2rMn3DCjR6wGKfHfIBhXjKcD/s320/Uncrafty+Crochet+2+009.JPG" width="174" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the left, in pale blue, is the </span><a href="http://www.caron.com/color_cards/cc_onepound.html" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Caron One Pound</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, which is 100% acrylic. Great for learning on, but not very soft.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the middle, in a silvery grey, is the </span><a href="http://www.yarndex.com/yarn.cfm?yarn_id=6457" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, which is bamboo and wool. Softer than the acrylic by far, a little more stretchy and plied so it's not the easiest to work with when starting out. It is not, however, hard to work with in general. I will definitely be getting more of this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The dark multicolored one on the right is the </span><a href="http://www.yarndex.com/yarn.cfm?yarn_id=1170" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Noro Cash Iroha</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, which is cashmere blend, wool, cashmere and nylon. It's luxuriously soft. I want to make a blanket out of this stuff, but it would be a pretty dang expensive blanket. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm also making a scarf for one of my friend's kids out of the alpaca I found and will post photos once it's done. </span><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002YE935I" style="border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important; text-align: center;" width="1" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004AF1ZU0" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> </span><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1936096153" style="border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important; text-align: center;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm proud of myself for having already created a few things with the small amount of knowledge I have (huge thanks to Maria for teaching me and my mom for buying me the Craftsy Crochet Lab class), but I'm not actually </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://crochet.about.com/od/finishing-techniques/tp/finishing-techniques-for-crochet-and-knitting.htm" rel="nofollow">finished</a></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> with them.</span><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1931499748" style="border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1580176453" style="border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1931499195" style="border: none !important; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin: 0px !important; text-align: center;" width="1" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Aside from a variety of stitches and patterns, I need to learn how to </span><a href="http://knitting.about.com/od/learntoknit/a/blocking_knits.htm" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">block</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> my projects once they're done and I need to learn more about the various yarns that are out there - don't even get me started on patterns, embellishments and using more than one skein on a project!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Right now you can take a free mini-class on Craftsy called </span><a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/know-your-wool/101" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Know Your Wool</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. This seems like a pretty advanced class, but you never know what you'll glean and it's FREE.</span></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-73414468414574372702012-07-29T18:37:00.000-04:002012-07-30T12:31:05.319-04:00You CAN'T Kill Rosemary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wanna bet?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzo_qHPkvJoIzN-EFrCN7HiH-nfhpLpwIrbW53qTqpykTrkIPpb_pHuS0ZlraSFT2qm9sIppFSLsh7JQZxuAQgOpOIy7u1ycJk6DoS4rwHhAJA0UXGctb2W0Kn4jRN1M_H9Lq1l7dYr9Kb/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzo_qHPkvJoIzN-EFrCN7HiH-nfhpLpwIrbW53qTqpykTrkIPpb_pHuS0ZlraSFT2qm9sIppFSLsh7JQZxuAQgOpOIy7u1ycJk6DoS4rwHhAJA0UXGctb2W0Kn4jRN1M_H9Lq1l7dYr9Kb/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+022.JPG" width="330" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have discovered, aside from the fact that I can obviously kill <i>any</i> plant, that putting those that need a lot of water in the same planter as those that don't...yeah, it doesn't work out so well. The basil and mint have really struggled between being kept indoors during the worst of our wind storms (they really don't love the air conditioning and I'm not willing to compromise my comfort <i>that</i> much) and some seriously withering heat, even though the "heat wave" has been over for a while. I have to keep a close eye on them to make sure they're not wilting, but a little bit of wilt seems inevitable these days. And we're not even to August yet. Ugh. Most of the time the rain takes care of these two (below), I just have to make sure I don't get lazy and completely forget to water them on dry days.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1xwbcQhfpG24xPCGEjy1G3QdQHKegbbf5bN5o1r0IF5PfB-a3WLHDeIUxH5o52ONkvbMTajfbGuJuz7csMSlHGBz6NTka1o9ceQLFaRjJ-9dXUhJyXCVMIKDadyTWcOJRHtJJ1_TJ93c/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1xwbcQhfpG24xPCGEjy1G3QdQHKegbbf5bN5o1r0IF5PfB-a3WLHDeIUxH5o52ONkvbMTajfbGuJuz7csMSlHGBz6NTka1o9ceQLFaRjJ-9dXUhJyXCVMIKDadyTWcOJRHtJJ1_TJ93c/s320/Uncrafy+Crochet+024.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBXbDB0kBNcR1IaUj3HrAOD-FLCWYw-eWxbS6jkWeIlcgM37INnjd9d3PtNEA9HtDhW_tPpqaL_GfMpmfP9Nyg-4rFphyphenhyphenufRN1hjEf0VIH6jgptJYmlBD3wBVLWH1wTIg9U5mKQULiKwj/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBXbDB0kBNcR1IaUj3HrAOD-FLCWYw-eWxbS6jkWeIlcgM37INnjd9d3PtNEA9HtDhW_tPpqaL_GfMpmfP9Nyg-4rFphyphenhyphenufRN1hjEf0VIH6jgptJYmlBD3wBVLWH1wTIg9U5mKQULiKwj/s320/Uncrafy+Crochet+021.JPG" width="277" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was going to yank the dead rosemary plants (there are two there in the middle) out of the planter, but then I realized there is a small problem with that...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTb_qBeU-w3pObUDJXgKPrATVuZejRl4KjX_Ei-XZnF4oDi2p0PX8zUj1ONb84J-Z7T-jH3e8x3WYfAQXWI39Tp_t0lwMG3XqpMbMLjBqrM1B4lWelDpz4yg9Waj2caKsqGshNq_Zo5GXH/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTb_qBeU-w3pObUDJXgKPrATVuZejRl4KjX_Ei-XZnF4oDi2p0PX8zUj1ONb84J-Z7T-jH3e8x3WYfAQXWI39Tp_t0lwMG3XqpMbMLjBqrM1B4lWelDpz4yg9Waj2caKsqGshNq_Zo5GXH/s640/Uncrafy+Crochet+020.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">...The mint has migrated into the space underneath both rosemary plants. Cute lil mints!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixN48Gkl3UGdIiyt19O3EaSIaaCY5qB-2nhQvc_J67N7qR4QeAr2rLheXanKyNmHctE8a_7YLAULeuN-evGqI5Zadmm7XK7JdgrSXQQWf_vvNZT_YUVIxKMODtrotqQ-CnuWxMdvJ9mfV1/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixN48Gkl3UGdIiyt19O3EaSIaaCY5qB-2nhQvc_J67N7qR4QeAr2rLheXanKyNmHctE8a_7YLAULeuN-evGqI5Zadmm7XK7JdgrSXQQWf_vvNZT_YUVIxKMODtrotqQ-CnuWxMdvJ9mfV1/s640/Uncrafy+Crochet+023.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, I simply cut the rosemary down to give the cute little mint babies room to take over. I guess that's good news mixed in with the bad. Other good news is that my thornless blackberry </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has recovered from the shock of being</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> tossed about the back deck by last month's </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2012_North_American_derecho" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">derecho</a>. <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've been going out to remove the dead parts of the plant now and again (and did more after taking these pictures) and keeping an eye on it, making sure it's well watered and not falling out of the planter (it lost a lot of dirt originally).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgtBjxVU7ah9FNUKtYcBy_bcG4lb8aLivj3iq8yrQLi6SmuhA1k7MuwqDR8C2anQB-DngquWa5PDDE-G-DAXGBRidqoAsidGIUz8rLR_HC0l3QIP6F_EM2A8r9713D3Z0TQipfIgY3kvG/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgtBjxVU7ah9FNUKtYcBy_bcG4lb8aLivj3iq8yrQLi6SmuhA1k7MuwqDR8C2anQB-DngquWa5PDDE-G-DAXGBRidqoAsidGIUz8rLR_HC0l3QIP6F_EM2A8r9713D3Z0TQipfIgY3kvG/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+018.JPG" width="340" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And now it's got a nice long green, healthy tendril. It's unlikely we'll have a single berry this summer (I'll feel lucky if the poor thing has any blooms <i>next</i> summer), but I'm just glad it's not dead. Unfortunately, I will need to buy a tall trellis to weave it into (complete absence of forethought here).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This makes me <i>really</i> happy.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllymf48CJQ3G0tL3cDmgL5dTCL3P-DKMoGxcTnhtIh1_KCEu_9-by913nKpJrpkOeiEsA4lKtys_ylquy4hSU9Id-nPGHTVuu1bUnze7VHx_K-1M89Hkg7XHaTK7kQeGsWlrNCdtUEO-f/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllymf48CJQ3G0tL3cDmgL5dTCL3P-DKMoGxcTnhtIh1_KCEu_9-by913nKpJrpkOeiEsA4lKtys_ylquy4hSU9Id-nPGHTVuu1bUnze7VHx_K-1M89Hkg7XHaTK7kQeGsWlrNCdtUEO-f/s640/Uncrafy+Crochet+015.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-43933044043382133902012-07-24T22:12:00.004-04:002012-07-24T22:16:18.740-04:00No Crafty for Kitty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's official: I can actually crochet. Granted, I can only single crochet at this point, but a few days ago I could only manage a slipknot and a wobbly foundation chain. Now I can make really wobbly scarves instead!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsu7bBE3qO0PzLnFkwjEpXFah5V9sQ3hXAtwtVdfdbotUqyrVlCDmLVrj8887OZzvvrOrKBQXmGo0g8tob9UygOgZsW1KKcyg_qo6P4Ecnp1gHhNs8DXm8_cu097Qo2Ms5Em1kcE2Q5BE1/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsu7bBE3qO0PzLnFkwjEpXFah5V9sQ3hXAtwtVdfdbotUqyrVlCDmLVrj8887OZzvvrOrKBQXmGo0g8tob9UygOgZsW1KKcyg_qo6P4Ecnp1gHhNs8DXm8_cu097Qo2Ms5Em1kcE2Q5BE1/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+013.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Like this!</i></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycAm07fh1-VHx0jNeUeveQ9_UhClN9JX5pdYCNdgVh5IS9zalFPb-wvujcMn3iVbXhA4-7Ea5jALFn-wOsdopYUkpsUzqoDjJqyZZeuH2GLOINk6ckIMmS2hbLOomJ8F1nYQWep572FgG/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycAm07fh1-VHx0jNeUeveQ9_UhClN9JX5pdYCNdgVh5IS9zalFPb-wvujcMn3iVbXhA4-7Ea5jALFn-wOsdopYUkpsUzqoDjJqyZZeuH2GLOINk6ckIMmS2hbLOomJ8F1nYQWep572FgG/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+002.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It started off really well, though I had no idea what I was actually making, until I realized that I hadn't been counting stitches (didn't <a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/2012/07/embracing-suck.html">Meg</a> warn me about this?!). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBeAq8mTfRJW_FZ0NZZjIpqphYAgKIz7mwNihQRgAiVxGkWNYVlFB-2RcFhdqPpS_UNs0Ykqq8IqOQCY8bYC-Ul9yuv7BSx-ZcLT_chcHjyIhXxcmcOFKLcsm-tX6_OHZPwVW9iDxRTG5/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+014.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>I know, Meg. I know.</i></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBeAq8mTfRJW_FZ0NZZjIpqphYAgKIz7mwNihQRgAiVxGkWNYVlFB-2RcFhdqPpS_UNs0Ykqq8IqOQCY8bYC-Ul9yuv7BSx-ZcLT_chcHjyIhXxcmcOFKLcsm-tX6_OHZPwVW9iDxRTG5/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> My second try was definitely better. Not fantastic, but better. Let me tell you, counting stitches is really hard when you're watching <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/" rel="nofollow">The Departed</a>. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1849868/" rel="nofollow">Hallmark movies</a> are much easier to tune out. I stopped everything I was working on tonight because of <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/politicalanimals/" rel="nofollow">Political Animals</a> - you <i>cannot</i> craft with that show on. If you haven't watched it, put down your crochet hook, knitting needles, glue gun, paintbrush, or what-have-you and <i>do it</i>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GDWyWhUsamnV_NTry8QZhkKF5OshouOyAfMOrsLu3keQSMMaqmjOzMraiCy67NhFE9rq4Ha7IIlZYNL_2PxWR9y1_qRKi80et673QyeaQys3w7QIR-6OVi-6Wf2ILRd4KU21LiIrElJi/s1600/Uncrafy+Crochet+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GDWyWhUsamnV_NTry8QZhkKF5OshouOyAfMOrsLu3keQSMMaqmjOzMraiCy67NhFE9rq4Ha7IIlZYNL_2PxWR9y1_qRKi80et673QyeaQys3w7QIR-6OVi-6Wf2ILRd4KU21LiIrElJi/s400/Uncrafy+Crochet+009.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aside from the online crochet class on Craftsy (which I still love to pieces), I got help from a friend thanks to a Craft Day we had at my house. I will eternally owe Maria for showing me how easy single crochet is. On this fateful day, my Uncrafty catchphrase was also created and then echoed with much enthusiasm by my friend's daughter: </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Pocky-Kitty-Superchunk/dp/B00000JMJ7" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"><b>No Crafty for Kitty!!!</b></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5oadBKY9fPCu4HYAo63kTfuTLKQTJNeGnqPkxBCTtCcCL_gJQxHIalO4ZSRI-Nv80WJ3WdquUsvkyZT8OrfYXyF0YB5d80ALuEUCeB9DvJGMB8EZ_b2AWEoUgQ5v7EqUcJQnA2r5r5lM/s320/IMAG0020.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Sweet little hands crocheting </i></span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;">(or?)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>Soon to come, an actual scarf. Maybe two.</i></span></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-30761904994188687722012-07-21T12:25:00.005-04:002012-07-24T21:46:29.312-04:00Crochet Lab on Craftsy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600594662/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1600594662&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1600594662&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600594662" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761128182/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0761128182&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0761128182&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have just started my first crochet class online at <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/" rel="nofollow">Craftsy</a>: <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/Crochet-Lab-Basic-Techniques-Patterns/23" rel="nofollow">Crochet Lab with Vickie Howell</a> (Basic Techniques and Patterns). First impression: I heart <a href="http://vickiehowell.com/" rel="nofollow">Vickie Howell</a>. She's just the right amount of quirky and perky and I love the stuff she makes. She is now tied in my heart with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Stoller" rel="nofollow">Debbie Stoller</a> of <a href="http://stitchnbitch.org/" rel="nofollow">Stitch 'n Bitch</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0761128182" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Here is what I get along with my class (for $15):</i></span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Access to the class at any time, as many times and for as long as I want.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ability to skip around within the class sections, do 30 second repeats (perfect for following along) or pause the video.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ability to ask questions and participate in discussions with my classmates and instructor.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ability to create notes, which will be bookmarked on the video in my account.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And access to printable class materials.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003I5IT52/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003I5IT52&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B003I5IT52&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003I5IT52" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047V9KTU/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0047V9KTU&linkCode=as2&tag=lost097-20" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0047V9KTU&Format=_SL110_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost097-20" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I came to the realization that I need a sort of starter-yarn (my mom's stuff is way too fancy), so I'm going to Joann and Michael's today to pick up a skein. I'm hoping to find Stitch Nation's Bamboo Ewe in a light blue. And I'm considering picking up whatever size hook it recommends, even though I have a set, because I want to try one with an ergonomic grip. My right hand is crazy sore from crocheting last night.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0047V9KTU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sunday is Crochet Day, so hopefully I'll have a sample of my awfulness to show you then!</span></span></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-64174849943712300442012-07-19T21:24:00.000-04:002012-07-19T21:24:46.531-04:00Embracing the Suck<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you haven't already figured it out from my last post, I have a serious problem with being bad at things. When I said that I wanted to already know how to crochet, <a href="http://lostgirlsdc.blogspot.com/p/about_31.html">Meg</a> called me on it, telling me that my perfectionism was going to be the end of me (I'm paraphrasing). She is correct. I am a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">perfectionist and it is hindering my progress. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You would think that wanting things "just so" would be a good thing, but more often than not I have the tendency to stick with the things that I know I'm already good at. I defend myself by saying that I'm improving upon those things (which is true to some extent), but I'm doing myself the great disservice of not broadening my horizons. If I want to learn something new, I have to be okay with the fact that I'm going to totally suck at it for a while. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The reason I created the Uncrafty blog was to encourage women like me to embrace their creativity and learn a craft they had always been interested in. To stop thinking that it's too late. To not be intimidated by those people who have obviously been doing it a long time. In my experience, quite a few of those talented crafters love the opportunity to share what they've learned. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/p/about.html">Mary</a> has, on many occasions, attempted to teach me something new. Looking back (after talking to Meg today) I realize that my fear of doing it wrong often got in the way. Luckily, Mary's cooking lessons did not go to waste (I frequently use her recipes). She also tried to teach me how to knit. I sucked. My first project was laughable and I didn't enjoy doing it, so I stopped. But now I need to get past my insecurities and my need for perfection and just enjoy this experience. Especially if there is a chance that some other uncrafty people will join in the discussion at some point (that's totally a hint, you guys).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To help me on my way, Meg has offered up a picture of her first crochet project for all of us to enjoy. The title of this project is "Cape or Baby Blanket?" Awesome.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-qGImAWai5kDfERjt5h6RZqBh5MXXf2kH4MIgbs7VKE9O5aH0buQN5Yqr_4w7AtzOHFHBLxQOUySITuFTX5ET1d7asPxdDI7rCeymF6r-x6oTWLnQscaeYupp0Djm5a_QiujjYfcAN9e/s1600/IMG_1997.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-qGImAWai5kDfERjt5h6RZqBh5MXXf2kH4MIgbs7VKE9O5aH0buQN5Yqr_4w7AtzOHFHBLxQOUySITuFTX5ET1d7asPxdDI7rCeymF6r-x6oTWLnQscaeYupp0Djm5a_QiujjYfcAN9e/s400/IMG_1997.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She also included a picture of Orlando Weeks. There doesn't need to be a reason for that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meg and Mary have both inspired me with their creativity and fearlessness when it comes to taking on something new. Mary knits, crochets, paints, makes jewelry, cooks, bakes, sings, writes, makes whackadoo things with polymer clay and sews her own clothes (because everyone in Genoa is five to ten inches shorter than her). Meg bakes, cooks, sings, crochets, laminates like a mo' fo', writes, handmakes cards and is learning to play ukulele. Both women have completely supported my creativity, even my uncraftiness, and instead of being intimidated by their awesomeness, I feel inspired. Anyone up to embracing the suck with me?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Crafty and Uncrafty folk: Do you have a story about, or a photo of, a first craft project that sucked real bad? Post stories in the comments or <a href="mailto:dclostgirl@gmail.com">email us</a> and we will post it for you.</i></span></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-83335900847321851942012-07-18T22:56:00.001-04:002012-07-18T22:56:56.247-04:00Hallmark Holiday Crochet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhFlC7Zjo0yH1VF0EzZnXcg7qQhmw9pVrrwqbVanBBIbfUHLojLbQe02M2UX8Dve1ZtaXNg4PRWTxyvWQfbHBAsZfEKydJ9feYLF_9dYdLXD_3WHlYxqFs_JpFJrRayrxroTgAHlTcqfV/s1600/Crochet+1+007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhFlC7Zjo0yH1VF0EzZnXcg7qQhmw9pVrrwqbVanBBIbfUHLojLbQe02M2UX8Dve1ZtaXNg4PRWTxyvWQfbHBAsZfEKydJ9feYLF_9dYdLXD_3WHlYxqFs_JpFJrRayrxroTgAHlTcqfV/s320/Crochet+1+007.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have something to admit to you. You already know that I am the uncraftiest of them all. What you may not know is that there is a special place in my heart for the occasional Hallmark Channel movie. And I love Christmas movies even more. This is most likely because my dad celebrates Chanukah and my mom spent several years ruining Christmas by decorating our tree super-80s-<a href="http://cdn.crowsnesttrading.com/images/uploads/12645_9447_large.jpg" rel="nofollow">Southwestern</a> <a href="http://uglyhousephotos.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/091107g.jpg" rel="nofollow">style</a> (long live the <a href="http://rlv.zcache.com/christmas_cactus_greeting_card-p137813516092774136bfjn0_400.jpg" rel="nofollow">Christmas Cactus</a>!). </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few days ago, I decided (after much encouragement from <a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/p/about.html">Mary</a>) to spend my day learning the basics of crochet while watching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hallmark_Channel_Original_Movies" rel="nofollow">Hallmark Channel Christmas movies</a> - because they know me well enough to realize that I will totally watch cheesy Christmas movies in the middle of <a href="http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/Sterling+VA+20165" rel="nofollow">summer</a>. That's how I roll.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I started out with a pack of crochet hooks from Michael's and a ball of yarn I found in the leftovers from my mom's storage unit (I have a lot of her yarn, but this one is a spare). I only have one book on crochet, but it has a small how-to section in the back, so it got me started enough for me to figure out if this whole crochet thing was really going to work for me. Which isn't to say that I haven't learned how to do the first step (a foundation chain) before. I know I've made one, but I can't even remember who helped me with it, so remembering how to hold the tension (the way you hold the yarn) didn't go so great. Actually that was one of my big issues before. I'm assuming that practice is the only thing that is going to change that. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The pictures of the book and hooks, below, are product links to Amazon for the exact items I got. <i>For something I am NOT going to make, click <a href="http://cdn.freshome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/15_claire-ann-obrien-chair2.jpg" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</i></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931499683/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1931499683&linkCode=as2&tag=lost095-20"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1931499683&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost095-20" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XZYISM/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000XZYISM&linkCode=as2&tag=lost095-20" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B000XZYISM&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=lost095-20" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I started out with a US I9 5.5mm crochet hook (the pink one), because...I have no idea what I'm doing and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I decided to start by making a few <a href="http://youtu.be/V6QhfnOga4w" rel="nofollow">foundation chains</a> (recommended by Mary). I just watched the video embedded in the last sentence...I totally didn't do that... <i>Here's a <a href="http://whatnottocraft.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">vagapple</a> for you...</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlFj29km3pxnDrMQzJapOb8M77yPMd0AQfxfw9XaDvtsIZdnpu5eeTcR1mpNRemFLERW0Yj-nJeI8E2E1QSZ7ULpK84kcu7tLiAkxqiP4Y87pKMm4RzHmX7rFzMW1uMUlkG3dt9fSCjHd/s1600/2012-07-16+Crochet+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlFj29km3pxnDrMQzJapOb8M77yPMd0AQfxfw9XaDvtsIZdnpu5eeTcR1mpNRemFLERW0Yj-nJeI8E2E1QSZ7ULpK84kcu7tLiAkxqiP4Y87pKMm4RzHmX7rFzMW1uMUlkG3dt9fSCjHd/s640/2012-07-16+Crochet+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first chain I made (with the pink hook) is the longer one below (in other words, <i>not</i> the one with the blue hook, which you probably already figured out) and it is obviously not a very good chain. It won't lay flat because the stitches are uneven, but I hadn't done this in a while, so I wasn't too dismayed. I decided to switch to the blue one, a US H8 (ha!) 5mm hook. And no, not because I hate crochet, I hadn't gotten that joke yet. I just wanted to try a slightly smaller hook with this yarn to see if it made a difference. It felt much more comfortable and the chain turned out better (it lays flat and only the first few stitches are uneven). I'm going to need a lot of practice and better instructions.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoXRiRwsvI7P2pPO3bNp33AgZ98pVFdZhNXx1DzVu3P9c_ITF79lG065EQwTCidDozEuYNK9lCHTNyE2iED6WZGwtzG9X8mIYAyvJ1_yWb7L4wr9K7WOQ3lmin-FiSAAVBw1n7hQHB4-5/s1600/Crochet+1+036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtoXRiRwsvI7P2pPO3bNp33AgZ98pVFdZhNXx1DzVu3P9c_ITF79lG065EQwTCidDozEuYNK9lCHTNyE2iED6WZGwtzG9X8mIYAyvJ1_yWb7L4wr9K7WOQ3lmin-FiSAAVBw1n7hQHB4-5/s640/Crochet+1+036.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Part of me really doesn't want to do the learning part of this, I just wanna make stuff - I want to <i>already know</i>. This is why I gave up knitting (I really hated that). But I like crochet. I feel more comfortable with a crochet hook than with knitting needles (there are <i>two</i> of them, it's so confusing!...shush) and I have all these boxes of fantastic yarn (which I won't touch until I know what I'm doing). So let's make it official - I am really going to <i>try</i> to learn how to crochet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To keep me from being half-assed about it (and because she loves me), <a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/p/about.html">Mary</a> bought me an online crochet class from <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/" rel="nofollow">Craftsy</a>! Craftsy offers <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/classes/sewing" rel="nofollow">online video courses</a> in a wide variety of crafts, from Artisan Bread Making to The Art of Cloth Dyeing. There are several crochet classes available, including two beginners classes. I am going to sign up for <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/Crochet-Lab-Basic-Techniques-Patterns/23" rel="nofollow">Crochet Lab with Vickie Howell</a>, which goes over all the details from choosing tools to learning stitches. My ulterior motive is to someday take the <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/Amigurumi-Design-Your-Own-Monster/58" rel="nofollow">Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster</a> course. Duh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am off to sign up and will post more details about the class and my progress (let's hope there will be some of that) later in the week. Actual crafting, you guys! Crazy!</span></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-6412407163392668532012-07-10T19:58:00.001-04:002012-07-10T20:02:11.907-04:00It's All About the Pickles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W0Z23O/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost094-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004W0Z23O" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B004W0Z23O&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost094-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004W0Z23O" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am not a fan of onions. Bermuda, pearl, cipollini, vidalia, red, scallions - how I loathe them. But as I learned to cook, I realized they were sometimes required for complex flavors that I loved, so I have learned to incorporate the occasional mellow-flavored into a meal (caramelized or chopped so fine they might as well have been juiced). I still cannot imagine eating them raw and I do try to avoid them when I can (especially if they overpower a dish) and that is why, for a long time, I avoided potato salad. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Potato salad purchased at a store is pretty much guaranteed to have onions in it (sometimes even red ones - my least favorite). Most potato salad recipes call for at least scallions, if not two kinds of onion, and most people I know prefer to have onions in it because it adds a lot of flavor.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IG8A0Y/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost094-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004IG8A0Y" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B004IG8A0Y&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost094-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am happy to say that I recently found a recipe online that, once converted by my anti-onionness, can now be proclaimed <b>The Ultimate Onion Haters' Potato Salad</b>. Ahem. I ignored the not-very-savory-looking photo on the <a href="http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Dill-Pickle-Potato-Salad" rel="nofollow">Taste of Home</a> page and concentrated on the ingredients; eliminating what I wouldn't use (or didn't have) and adding more of what I would use (or did have). What interested me in this particular recipe were the use of eggs and pickles. The eggs because I liked the idea of combining egg salad with potato salad. The dill pickles because they add a nice zesty flavor that keeps you from missing the onions (for those of you who enjoy them).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 pounds of your favorite potato (I used russets, skin on), boiled and chopped</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7 hard-cooked eggs, chopped (I boiled the potatoes and eggs together, taking the eggs out early, but you certainly don't have to)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 medium dill pickles, chopped</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup mayonnaise (<i>not</i> Miracle Whip)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 teaspoons prepared mustard (I used Nathan's Original Coney Island Deli Mustard)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/4 cup dill pickle juice</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 teaspoon black pepper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Salt and Pepper, to taste</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Optional:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 celery ribs, chopped (for extra crunch without changing the flavor too much, with the eggs in there, this is recommended)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Paprika (if you want to make it a deviled-egg potato salad - I can't wait to make this version!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hot sauce (try not to go too vinegar-y, since the pickles will already make it very tangy)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boil the eggs and potatoes to whatever firmness or softness you please. I like my hard-boiled eggs to be very firm (easier to cut, and hold together in the salad better) and my potatoes to not be too tender (same idea and don't forget that they'll keep cooking a bit once they're out of the pot). Allow both to thoroughly cool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mix the mayo, mustard and black pepper together before adding it to the eggs and potatoes. This will allow for an even coating. If you want to add more mayo, do it <i>before </i>adding the pickle juice (which, added to a dollop of mayo, will produce mayo-blobs and no one wants that), but I don't recommend adding more than another 1/2 a cup of mayo. Once it's coated to your liking, add the chopped pickles and the pickle juice. Mix well before seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You can eat the salad right away, but leaving it in the fridge for at least an hour (I like to let them hang out altogether overnight) will help the flavors marry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>This recipe brought to you by the Anti-Onion Brigade.</i></span></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-50058770214938135362012-06-16T22:05:00.000-04:002012-06-16T22:06:03.138-04:00First Blackberry Blossom and How I Almost Killed My Herbs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Let's start with my pride and joy, then we can get to the killing. My dear <a href="http://blackthumbdc.blogspot.com/2012/04/pity-post.html">thornless blackberry</a> started out (in April of this year) as a stick with a few leaves on it (okay, it had roots, too - I'm just sayin'). I can't take that much credit for how well it's doing (this time of year with all the rain, humidity and sunshine, it would be hard to keep it from growing), but I am very proud that <i>I have not killed it</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My joy is from the fact that it has its very first blackberry blossom. I don't have a terrible amount of luck with flowering plants and I've wondered if this poor thing will ever actually bear fruit. The blossom is a sign of terrible goodness and I practically broke my neck running back inside for my camera after I saw it. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGatEKrB5E2xMFRkTpbWEb4ldEvFZKa_YJNxmllOCJQ3lHDzAxGNdehppgn_ub4uZEaTd3ymNVHcjUeK8rOXAbGtSIe3hrtASX2Gw8V1mi4oSRndaUo7T-tFxx7uFUO4wnLKpXdxXeEsk/s1600/2012-06-15+Herbs+n+Birds+6.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGatEKrB5E2xMFRkTpbWEb4ldEvFZKa_YJNxmllOCJQ3lHDzAxGNdehppgn_ub4uZEaTd3ymNVHcjUeK8rOXAbGtSIe3hrtASX2Gw8V1mi4oSRndaUo7T-tFxx7uFUO4wnLKpXdxXeEsk/s640/2012-06-15+Herbs+n+Birds+6.14.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the wild, these white blossoms turn pink as spring turns into summer, but here we are well into the season, so it was a surprise to see one at all! I wonder if we will start seeing green berries soon. I'm hoping they'll make the transition from teensy green things to pale red teenager berries and slowly turn into black juicy beauties. But this is the plant's first year, it's not in the ground and it is unfortunately under my care, so we'll see...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anything could happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To prove my point, I had an appointment for a walk-through of my yard with a lawn and plantcare company last week and I commented to the guy that I kill most plants and can't be trusted. Then I pointed up to my deck (from the street, you can just barely see the herbs) and said it was a miracle my planter of herbs was still alive. Two days later, I went out onto the deck to get some basil and saw that all the plants in the planter were withering... Because it didn't rain for a week... And I didn't water them... Because that's how I roll...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The good news is that I've managed to bring the poor things back from the edge. I really need to be more careful. Imagine if I was responsible for a whole yard! That would be bad, you guys.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qgEdDV6pQZGCdGzCduskL3CxAknHx89zaa2k_m3KOzjDCVroWPWOqw0zQpE2vBuT7uVhMZ9ItQBYJ-LxbdkanlkYPCWN9_-8Yokzsd4o9jLw0v4WXRxNQsi8BcdmiHQNl8kcPpl4ofO_/s1600/2012-06-15+Herbs+n+Birds+6.141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qgEdDV6pQZGCdGzCduskL3CxAknHx89zaa2k_m3KOzjDCVroWPWOqw0zQpE2vBuT7uVhMZ9ItQBYJ-LxbdkanlkYPCWN9_-8Yokzsd4o9jLw0v4WXRxNQsi8BcdmiHQNl8kcPpl4ofO_/s640/2012-06-15+Herbs+n+Birds+6.141.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It only took a few days of monitoring the soil to make sure it wasn't too dry or too moist to get them back to okay, but they are definitely mad at me. And who can blame them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Does anyone ever wonder how my cats survive? Yeah, me too.</span></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-5563899060502332272012-06-01T20:28:00.001-04:002012-06-01T20:28:28.961-04:00The Black Thumb: A Change of Venue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After writing yesterday about getting more organized and creating a routine to keep me sane and healthy (on <a href="http://lostgirlsdc.blogspot.com/2012/05/home-and-habit.html">LostGirls</a>), I spent some time going over my stats for all five LostGirls sites. I kept thinking about the small amount of pageviews that <a href="http://blackthumbdc.blogspot.com/">The Black Thumb</a> has (it also has a very small amount of posts and comments). The more I thought about why I still want to write about gardening (even though I'm an absolute beginner at it), the more I realized that it is more practical for me to put my gardening posts on <a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/">Uncrafty</a> (formerly known as Crafts for the Uncrafty). Uncrafty has always been about trying new things, learning more about crafts and various arts. Gardening certainly fits in with that, especially at the basic level that I'm writing about. So The Black Thumb still exists on <a href="http://blackthumbdc.blogspot.com/">its own URL</a> (with posts from 4/13/12 to 5/26/12), but any new posts will be part of the <a href="http://uncraftydc.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Uncrafty</a> world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you are still interested in following our gardening posts (I say "our" because other people have asked to eventually contribute or collaborate), the right sidebar of Uncrafty has a variety of ways to keep track of us: on Facebook (via NetworkedBlogs), on Twitter, through an RSS subscription (posts and comments) or via email. Thank you for reading!</span></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-12867510429413293972012-05-28T05:17:00.000-04:002012-06-01T20:58:18.663-04:00Dressmaker, dressmaker make me a dress...or not<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
While I generally encourage people to try their hand at any craft that captures their imagination, I have to admit there is a downside to craftiness. That is, sometimes you get ahead of yourself...way ahead of yourself. Case in point: Several months ago, my husband and I were invited to a party to celebrate the first communion of the daughter of a good friend of mine. Now this isn't an ordinary party, this is an Italian party. And not just an Italian party, but an Italian party in <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/florence" rel="nofollow">Florence</a>. We're talking serious party here. Did I tell you it was in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Italy" rel="nofollow">castle</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.castellodivincigliata.it/" rel="nofollow">Castello di Vincigliata</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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As you can imagine, there was a great deal of discussion among the expat attendees about what one would <a href="http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/what-not-to-wear" rel="nofollow">wear</a> to such an event. The hostess graciously told us we could wear whatever we wanted. Of course none of us believed her and, after great soul searching/talking to every Italian we knew, we decided to rely on the only one among us who's ever been to such a function, or rather on her husband. Based on her husband's assessment, we determined that the dress was formal. Not <a href="http://www.commonwealthflagproject.org/Gov%20G/QEII%20Welcoming%20Leaders.jpg" rel="nofollow">coronation formal</a>, but close.<br />
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Since I had just finished making a jacket I really liked, and because shopping is so difficult here if you are over 5'4", I decided to make a dress to go under it. And, since I haven't owned a dress in the last 20 years, I decided I would make it while I took an <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/The-Couture-Dress/53" rel="nofollow">online course on couture dress making</a>. Don't ask me why I decided to use the most labor intensive dressmaking technique known to man to make a dress of all things, but that's what I decided...2 weeks before the party. I had some beautiful red fabric that perfectly matched the poppies in the jacket, I had the pattern, bought the course, and then...and then, I learned how much handwork was involved. But, never being one to refuse an impossible task, I began. First, I made basic alterations on the paper pattern, made the model out of muslin, made the alterations on the muslin, and finally cut the fabric. Easy, right? Wrong! This has taken me over a week, and now I have 5 days in which to actually sew the dress together, sew a lining, which is just like making the dress again...for the 3rd time, and attach the lining by hand. I am becoming concerned...<br />
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Nevertheless, I trudge ahead, working all day and into the night, until Wednesday night, when I try the dress on for the first time. <b>It is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.</b> Not only does it not fit correctly, the fabric is too stiff and forms a huge balloon around my hips, not to mention it hangs completely askew. <a href="http://ruchingdiva.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/horrified-thumb1.jpg" rel="nofollow">The HORROR</a>!! There is no <i>way</i> I'm wearing this thing.<br />
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Clearly, it's time for <a href="http://www.zappos.com/dresses/CKvXARDE1wE.zso" rel="nofollow">Plan B</a>. The only problem is, I don't have a Plan B. So, after tossing and turning all night, on Thursday morning I run down to my local fabric store where I find some beautiful cobalt blue <a href="http://www.fabricandart.com/dupioni_shantung.html" rel="nofollow">silk shantung</a> that only requires a small loan rather than a new mortgage, and I race home to begin a top and pair of slacks. By Saturday morning, an hour before our train leaves, the top is done, as are the pants...sorta. I guess you really can't say a pair of pants is finished when you still have to hem them and attach the waistband...<br />
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Fast forward to Sunday morning, and with 15 minutes to spare, my clothes are completed, at least as much as anyone can see. But, when we arrive at the party I discover that not only am I completely overdressed, there are people there in jeans...<i>I own jeans!!! </i>I could have slept during the last week!! Not that anyone wears jeans the way Italians do, and of course everyone was beautifully dressed, just not Coronation-ready.<br />
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Overdressed or not, the party was fabulous and we had a terrific time in an amazing location.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLiNYSjsNdvA8QFzYCp3zclE3u2Ck3qhyi_lCAh7mKkHGf9kIiAvVlhYCuNS4E8ZFkemv9YouHAEYrACRZDCzkMLTIn-UUeckQMzIL5DqDc_Gd7-XqMPdAHgglGiePFxfJDkW9uR7ASI/s1600/Florence+from+Fiesole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLiNYSjsNdvA8QFzYCp3zclE3u2Ck3qhyi_lCAh7mKkHGf9kIiAvVlhYCuNS4E8ZFkemv9YouHAEYrACRZDCzkMLTIn-UUeckQMzIL5DqDc_Gd7-XqMPdAHgglGiePFxfJDkW9uR7ASI/s400/Florence+from+Fiesole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Misty Florence from the hills of Fiesole</td></tr>
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So, what did I learn from this experience? Well, first of all, and most obviously, don't bite off more than you can chew. Crafting is fun unless you make it otherwise. Second, when your hostess tells you that you can wear whatever you want, you should believe her...even in Italy. <br />
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P.S. If this post hasn't completely put you off of couture dressmaking techniques, and you want to give it a whirl, the class I took, which is linked <a href="http://www.craftsy.com/class/The-Couture-Dress/53" rel="nofollow">here</a>, is most excellent. Or, if you're not ready for that, check out the other classes on Craftsy.com. I, on the other hand, have a red dress to redo.</div>Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01296620805334530012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-74042381002531382792012-05-14T23:26:00.000-04:002012-06-01T23:48:00.173-04:00Rainy Day Pasta<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When I think of cooking, I normally don't think of it as "crafting." But it is most certainly a craft. And it is one of the few that I actually feel adept at. I am not an experienced chef, by any means. Having watched both those formally trained in the <a href="http://www.culinaryarts.org/" rel="nofollow">culinary arts</a> and those folks who seem to simply have it in their blood, I am well aware of my skill level. And yet I continue to cook because it is something I enjoy. You know you love something when even the <a href="http://cookingfailures.livejournal.com/" rel="nofollow">failures</a> are a good experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For some reason, particularly gloomy rainy days always make me want to cook. On this particular</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> day, I decided it was too stormy to get out of my pajamas and there was no way in hell I was willing to run to the store for supplies. But one of my favorite things to make is what I call <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPmbT5XC-q0" rel="nofollow">Rainy Day Pasta</a>. It is an ever-changing, yet reliably tasty dish that incorporates whatever the heck you want it to and doesn't take long to make. What could be better? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I made this particular dish with you, whomever you are, in mind. Which is to say that since you're reading a blog called Crafts for the Uncrafty, I felt free to (1) cook with ingredients that were not in their prime and (2) cook my sauce in a wok, which I'm sure will horrify many (it was the first pan I saw and I wondered if it would make a difference - it didn't). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Here are the ingredients I used:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few cloves of garlic, 20 or so cherry tomatoes (that were a bit wrinkly, but tasted fabulous just the same), about 10 basil leaves (straight from the garden, by which I mean the planter on the back deck), </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">some </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanelle" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">campanelle</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> pasta (they look like little ruffled lilies), a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some red pepper flakes and some coarse salt. Basically, you can take a standard recipe for </span><a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spaghetti-with-oil-and-garlic-aglio-et-olio-recipe/index.html" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aglio et Olio</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (garlic and olive oil pasta) and add things you happen to have lying around in your pantry/fridge to it. But this is a simple dish and should be kept fairly simple. Maybe keep it under 10 ingredients? Maybe not.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>First, we prep. </b> Well, first we put on a <a href="http://www.finecooking.com/articles/cooking-pasta-properly.aspx" rel="nofollow">big ol' pot of salted water</a> to boil, then we prep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Smash the cloves of garlic by placing your knife flat over each one than giving it a good whack with the heel of your hand. The skin peels off easily after a good smash, but if you prefer one of them fancy peelers, you go do your thing. Mince the garlic so it will be spread throughout the sauce. If you don't want to chow down on it in every single bite, you <a href="http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/17686/why-do-people-smash-garlic" rel="nofollow">do not have to mince</a> the garlic. You can have the flavor alone by smashing it (to release the flavor), removing the skin, cooking it, then removing it from the pan before it browns. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My brother won't touch cherry tomatoes if the skin has begun to wrinkle at all. I prefer to cook them in something (with eggs in a scramble, as sauce for a pasta, sauteed with garlic then slathered on toast). I halved these ones, but there's no need to chop them up further as they'll break down in the pan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I usually do the basil chiffonade (this prep style) toward the end, but if you don't want to have to worry about it later, just do it now. Stack up your leaves (if they're store-bought, they'll probably be significantly bigger than mine) and do NOT stack up as many as I did here - <a href="http://www.ehow.com/video_2345992_make-basil-chiffonade.html" rel="nofollow">use this video</a> instead. You see down there how there's a lot of dark green on my basil? That's because I bruised the hell out of it. Why? Because I didn't care. I was being heartless. Don't be heartless with your basil. To be honest, I minced it after this, so really just do whatever you want - you're the one who'll be eating it, after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I like to make lots of dirty dishes, so I put all the different ingredients in separate bowls (I would have done that even if I weren't trying to make it look pretty for you). At some point, your water will have started boiling and you should put that campanelle (or whatever pasta you have lying around) into the water. Remember that you want that pasta to be just barely <a href="http://www.cookthink.com/reference/116/What_does_al_dente_mean" rel="nofollow">al dente</a> - it's going to finish in the saucepan (or in this case, the wok - ah ha ha ha!) and you don't want it to be mushy at any point. You know that idea some people have to throw spaghetti on the ceiling and if it sticks, it's done? Please don't do that. Unless you really like ceiling art. Also, my mother would like you to know that the oil you see in the wok (see below) is too much oil to start with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Use a regular pan (don't heat a nonstick pan on empty) and let it heat up without anything in it. Use low to medium heat to start, but be careful on the higher end of the spectrum (we <a href="http://dontburnthegarlic.com/" rel="nofollow">don't want to burn that garlic</a>). Once the pan is hot, add the oil, then add the garlic for about thirty seconds. Turn up the heat (medium to medium-high) and <i>then</i> you can add those tomatoes. Once they break down a little, add the red pepper flakes (once or twice around the pan, depending on how spicy you like it) and season with some salt. Or you can do what I did and add everything at the same time over medium heat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you want to get the most flavor out of it, you should really take the steps and avoid the dump-it-all-in method. That was incredibly lazy of me. Also remember to "season as you go." You won't want to add more pepper, but check the flavor to see if the sauce needs more salt a couple of times while it cooks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At this point, you're really just waiting for your pasta to be done. Once it is, drain most of the liquid - keep maybe a cup of pasta water. I keep that on the side, in case my sauce is too dry, but I also don't dump my pasta into a colander. Instead I drain off most of the water, then dump the pasta and remaining pasta water into the pan with my sauce. <i>Won't your sauce be thin?</i> Yes, yes it will. I like to actually taste the pasta - it tastes good! Once you've added the pasta and combined it with the sauce, add all or most of the basil and let it marry in the pan briefly. If you see that your sauce isn't coating the pasta, add a little pasta water.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFBuUh-cHlvow-MTBT__C3jd98zaas6OyWRcN1SjtzNTgcYb1lz9quzUzJvcTcU_KFwxkq4uxCqqmtYt5cY0rMqsEjU6fyKaugOd4FNnBKP0inPx8n9rFPVaXyswBggFiF2NpWYOkqwRL/s1600/2012-05-09+Rain+and+Pasta+5.93.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFBuUh-cHlvow-MTBT__C3jd98zaas6OyWRcN1SjtzNTgcYb1lz9quzUzJvcTcU_KFwxkq4uxCqqmtYt5cY0rMqsEjU6fyKaugOd4FNnBKP0inPx8n9rFPVaXyswBggFiF2NpWYOkqwRL/s400/2012-05-09+Rain+and+Pasta+5.93.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Heat all that together for no more than five minutes, once you've added the basil. Then plate that puppy. If you're lucky, you'll remember at the last minute that you have some <a href="http://italianfood.about.com/od/aboutingredients/a/Pecorino-Romano.htm" rel="nofollow">pecorino romano</a> in the fridge and you can finely grate some over the top of this. I started making this dish only hoping it would turn out okay. I ended up enjoying it with a glass of <a href="http://www.wineloverspage.com/italwineguide/prosecco.phtml" rel="nofollow">Prosecco</a> because I just really wanted a sparkling wine and didn't care about wine pairings at the time. The pecorino romano (much saltier than plain ol' pecorino) helped because I forgot to season the sauce early on. Season as you go! Buon appetito!</span></div>
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Recommended Reading:</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847831477/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost094-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847831477" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0847831477&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost094-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039458404X/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost094-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=039458404X"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=039458404X&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost094-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039458404X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684813254/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost094-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0684813254" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0684813254&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost094-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-27994659194531799792012-05-05T15:06:00.001-04:002012-05-05T15:49:36.375-04:00Onesie For You, Onesie For Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #0000ee; text-align: center;"><u><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012J4K5Y" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></u></span><span style="color: #0000ee;"><u><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007C2PVT4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></u></span><br />
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For TamTam, who had the great idea to use Mary's design-your-own-tee post for baby gifts.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001DKL89I" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006IK27M" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost094-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0023D1QN2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<br /></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-41056935141235633922012-05-03T17:33:00.000-04:002012-06-01T23:48:28.913-04:00Ode to the White T-shirt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0072M22KU/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost097-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0072M22KU" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0072M22KU&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost097-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0072M22KU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0077E7EYC/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost097-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0077E7EYC" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0077E7EYC&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost097-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0077E7EYC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
There are few superior canvasses for the beginning painter than a white t-shirt. They are easy to find, cheap and plentiful. That is, unless you live in Italy, where they are hard to find, expensive and few and far between. Plus, having the dual problem of being tall and not a size 2 (a problem shared with many American expats), availability is almost non-existent. Thus, I make my white t-shirts by the armload even though the fabric is more difficult to find than the t-shirts. <br />
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006IK2C2" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-width: initial !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006IK2C2/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost097-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0006IK2C2" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0006IK2C2&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost097-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006IK25E" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001DKL89I" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-width: initial !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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Keeping my t-shirt in mind, and in order to inspire you to try a craft you might never have
considered, I want to show you how to do something that requires neither
talent nor skill. It doesn't cost very much and it's easy, but more to
the point, it's fun and creative.</div>
</div>
<br />
I'm going to show you how to paint
and personalize a t-shirt.<br />
<br />
So what do we need to get started?<br />
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</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>1 white or light colored t-shirt.</b> It can be new or old, cotton or
cotton-polyester blend. The only requirement is that it needs to be
washed and ironed. I'm using only the front piece from a t-shirt pattern. I'll sew it together at the end.
<br />
</li>
<li><b>1 jar of fabric paint in your favorite color.</b> I recommend Jacquard
Textile Colors, if you live in the US, and Deka Fabric Paints, if you live
in Europe. They're both easy to find at your local art supply store, not necessarily at a craft store like Michaels.
A word of caution, make sure you don't buy the Jacquard Silk Textile Colors or Dye-na-Flo. Wonderful products, but not for our purposes. Notice for this project I'm using Jacquard Lumiere. This is a metallic textile paint because I'm a magpie, I like shiny
things.... <br />
</li>
<li><b>1 roll of masking tape, or an assortment of masking tape in
different widths.</b> Don't use Scotch tape or even consider using duct
tape...you will regret both.</li>
<li><b>An applicator.</b> This can be a paint brush, a sponge, a feather, even
a half a potato. Anything you have laying around that can hold a
little paint. </li>
<li><b>A flat dish to hold the paint.</b></li>
<li><b>A piece of cardboard to place inside the t-shirt. </b>This is to stabilize the shirt and keep the paint from seeping through to the back.<b> </b></li>
<li><b>Some newspapers to protect the surface of your table.</b></li>
<li><b>An iron.</b> You'll need this to set your paint after it has dried which in turn allows you to wash your fabulous new garment. </li>
</ul>
The first thing you want to do is securely tape your t- shirt onto your work surface.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCA9BewxcVqUrNPNlwPNMq3o6lDV9ZoWyfHiIm6sBaPjoMy6EVVEJIY4Ges2f__dST_Q4lr3Ol-4oxwoqETyjr0mmpLDarZyc1TRHMZDhCz0ZQ9SEO0uw_kJElYYVAtTcDiQ1WMa2TB0/s1600/DSC_0097.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCA9BewxcVqUrNPNlwPNMq3o6lDV9ZoWyfHiIm6sBaPjoMy6EVVEJIY4Ges2f__dST_Q4lr3Ol-4oxwoqETyjr0mmpLDarZyc1TRHMZDhCz0ZQ9SEO0uw_kJElYYVAtTcDiQ1WMa2TB0/s400/DSC_0097.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've only taped the top half because I'm only painting the top half.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Then layout strips of masking tape in a pleasing design.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2c6WwCeRb3x16YOVtsulKls6r0FVwV5wDYVhwtKnkeytZpATK5vC7gL8j-nzoAtExx7cpFsZFmg_fyeDamtsjiFEpYiB6RStM2qBdYbtiv4Cqf8WpFTJsKWBVPqxyj1H1Wg1mudzhRnQ/s1600/DSC_0100.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2c6WwCeRb3x16YOVtsulKls6r0FVwV5wDYVhwtKnkeytZpATK5vC7gL8j-nzoAtExx7cpFsZFmg_fyeDamtsjiFEpYiB6RStM2qBdYbtiv4Cqf8WpFTJsKWBVPqxyj1H1Wg1mudzhRnQ/s400/DSC_0100.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I used alternating thick and thin tape in one direction then the same in the other direction.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Using your applicator of choice, apply a
small amount of paint to the surface. You can brush in long or short
strokes, stamp the brush or sponge on the surface, whatever you want to
do. Just make sure you build up the paint slowly so the fabric stays
soft.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9F3LTDrk3gwNxXIlaql2S62n81CeselF1yqjTm-_bz1WdWs9sGl87rLg2GY332SikiobN6dSS1IiGxg3kIPZ-7sOolF2-rSpuwz_-hjbaxZfpNHNRj2cQiYz2_FBrs3KL28E5ppjdFY/s1600/DSC_0102.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9F3LTDrk3gwNxXIlaql2S62n81CeselF1yqjTm-_bz1WdWs9sGl87rLg2GY332SikiobN6dSS1IiGxg3kIPZ-7sOolF2-rSpuwz_-hjbaxZfpNHNRj2cQiYz2_FBrs3KL28E5ppjdFY/s400/DSC_0102.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I used long brush strokes with a 2 inch wide brush.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Allow the t-shirt to dry thoroughly (usually 24 hours) then, using the manufacturer's directions for your
particular paint, heat-set the paint with an iron.<br />
<br />
And...e' qui (or voila if you prefer)<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqe4r67rjQRdcUa6VppiyD-XRvMSrRveLDws9ClxV3fxbqGeZienkAYDWF00_NaygVfv8BSTZoBKDnzLCz-L7ZiTIEzyyARotUpyWQCVCfFWr0lZm1boqZB6rXxP9qi1lTllocY2_qTuM/s1600/DSC_0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqe4r67rjQRdcUa6VppiyD-XRvMSrRveLDws9ClxV3fxbqGeZienkAYDWF00_NaygVfv8BSTZoBKDnzLCz-L7ZiTIEzyyARotUpyWQCVCfFWr0lZm1boqZB6rXxP9qi1lTllocY2_qTuM/s320/DSC_0010.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001DKL89I" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
</div>
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<br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>And here are a few ideas if you want to try this but don't already have the supplies:</i><br />
<br />
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</div>Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01296620805334530012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-3956329069802956102012-04-30T13:29:00.000-04:002012-04-30T13:39:42.506-04:00Thinking Craftily...or is that Craftily Thinking...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I suppose I always knew this, but I have recently been reminded, by certain unnamed family members, that there are two kinds of people in the world, the Crafty and the Uncrafty. I must confess that I fall into the former group. I sew, I paint, I knit, I crochet, I...well, you get the idea. I'm still working with crafts that I've been doing since I was a kid, and I'm not afraid to try new crafts that I've always wanted to do or only recently discovered. Some crafts stay in my repertoire, others are cast aside after a while, usually because they are profoundly boring or just beyond my willingness to endure. But for someone who's not innately crafty<span style="color: red;"> <span style="color: black;">like Jess, who started this site, </span></span>becoming crafty or even attempting something crafty can be quite intimidating. The tools are often medieval in appearance, the materials are overwhelming in their variety, the options are endless, and the cost? ...That ball of yarn costs <i>how</i> much??? But still, there's this little spark inside you that says it's time to get over the fear, to ask yourself: How bad can it really be? How untalented is too untalented? Where can I hide my project when company comes?<br />
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The foregoing notwithstanding, I said I was crafty - I didn't say I was talented. Skillful in crafts I've done for a lifetime, maybe. Talented, no. Probably the most important thing I have discovered from a crafty lifetime is that it's just as much fun to make something...er...ugly, as it is to make something beautiful. This is a hard concept to sell, as I discovered over the weekend. My friend Amber and her family had come up from Tuscany for a visit, and as she and I walked through the streets of my ancient city, I was telling her about the difference between being project-oriented (more interested in the finished product), or process-oriented (more interested in the procedures and the actual "doing" part). As I was extolling the virtues of the "doing" part, she looked at me with abject horror and said, "But I want to be proud of what I make!"<br />
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Of course it's nice to be proud of the project you've put time and money into and even those of us interested in the process like to have something we love at the end of our labors, but if your goal is to open an Etsy store with your first projects, I'm here to tell you that ain't happening. All crafts have a learning curve. Some have a steeper curve than others, but that shouldn't stop you from trying your hand at something just for the hell of it.<br />
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<span style="color: black;">On these pages,</span> we're going to embark on a journey of discovery. Finding that perfect something that will satisfy the inner creative spirit that you may not even know exists. Along the way, you may see pictures of my beautiful city and maybe learn a little Italian. I may even introduce you to one or two of the Lost Girls of Italy. Native English speakers from around the world who live in Italy and have their own special take on crafts. <i>A presto....</i> ("so long")<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01296620805334530012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-54795145837788387002012-04-29T21:28:00.001-04:002012-06-01T23:49:04.169-04:00Crafting with Words<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The first friend I made in the DC area, when I moved here a few months ago, is a very crafty person. I am happy to say that my uncraftiness does not seem to impact my magnetism for people who have both talent and skill. Perhaps I'm just drawn to women who remind me of my mother (who you will be hearing from on here quite soon), as they seem to be drawn to me. One of the things both women have pointed out to me recently is that even if the things I knit are misshapen, my cookies are always hard as rocks and painting (<a href="http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/home-improvement/painting/paint-wall-00000000002187/index.html" rel="nofollow">house</a> or canvas) is certainly not my thing, I <i>am</i> a crafter of words. A beginner blogger I may be, but I have been writing almost as long as I have been reading (yes, that really is a picture of me to the left). <br />
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The trouble is this: If you do not keep doing that craft you love to do, you are going to lose a little bit of the skill you've acquired. It's like a muscle that atrophies due to lack of exercise. I have not, in the past decade or so, ever once <i>not </i>felt like a writer, but I know there was a time when that talent was thriving and the words just poured on out. How could I not want that back?<br />
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I feel I am better at editing my work now, but even with two weeks of constant posting under my belt (since I thought five sites at once was a <i>great</i> idea), I still feel like a have a long way to go. Instead of despairing over things I've lost - becoming convinced they can never be recovered, I have kept writing in the hopes that my perseverance will pay off. But it isn't the only thing I can do to move forward. <br />
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The first thing I plan to do is to fit myself into my own schedule. For me, being a blogger entails quite a bit of research. I have books on blogging, I read blogs on blogging, I have several blogs in my Google Reader that I try to keep up with, I have friends and readers who have input and requests (responding to and brainstorming with them is actually my favorite part of all of this) and when I'm not sitting at my computer, I'm out trying new things, learning new places and taking more photographs than I will ever know what to do with. Because my camera isn't exactly high tech, I also spend a lot of time editing photos (cropping, lightening, deleting) and putting the site name on the photo itself before uploading it to an online album and only then can I finally figure out where I'm going to use it on which of the five sites. When I take a break to eat or watch TV, I have magazines to read and those, then, give me more ideas for research and, of course, for things I need to add to one of my site's aStores. Those of you who know me, know that I love to shop, so when I see something I can't have that I think is amazing, it goes into those stores in the hopes that you'll enjoy it, too. Last, but not least, I have to write my posts. Inserting links and pictures is actually the quickest part (not to mention it's a lot of fun). The writing and editing portion is absolutely the hardest part for me right now. And that is why I need to, as I said before, make time for myself. Really, for my own sanity. Or what is left of it.<br />
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<b>So how does one do that, exactly?</b><br />
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With all the writing, researching and editing madness, you might think there is no way that brain downtime would involve more writing. But more writing is exactly what I need - but I need it to be for a different purpose: (1) I need a way of learning from other writers, (2) I need a sort of lightweight workshop to work through the crap that every type of artist inevitably has to create in order to get to their true inspiration, and (3) I need to remind myself not only why I do what I do but all the wonderful things it does for me.<br />
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<b>Learning from Others <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005QU8EO8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QU8EO8/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost097-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005QU8EO8" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B005QU8EO8&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost097-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a>Whether it's a Craigslist posting for likeminded individuals or a group you find on <a href="http://meetup.org/">MeetUp.org</a>, getting together with other people who do what you do (especially if your art is not what you do for a living, or if you work from home) is very important both for perspective and because it gives you a break from yourself. As a blogger, I spend a lot of time by myself, writing and reading things out loud. I even laugh out loud at things I say/write because there's no one else here to do it. Well, okay, it's really more about establishing a voice. In any case, I may not get lonely, but I might go a little cuckoo if I don't get out of my own head once in a while. I have wonderful people in my life to talk to about the LostGirls sites, but sometimes it's hard for me to talk about anything else. So I went on MeetUp.org this week and I found a group of writers in my area. Our weekly tasks are to submit our writing and help edit everyone else's. Wish me luck, next Saturday will be my first meeting with them.<br />
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<b>For the Lightweights <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1585421472" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585421472/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=lost097-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1585421472" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1585421472&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=lost097-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></a>It's not so much that the workshop I chose is for lightweights, it's just that I'm choosing to do it from a book, instead of actually going somewhere and participating with a large group of people. My stepmother gave me The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron in 1999. I have started (but never finished) this book more times than I can count and I may not finish it this time, either. But every time I need exercises to do or just a reminder that I'm being melodramatic when I throw myself on the ground and say my writing is hopeless, I crack the spine on this book and come to my senses. I have also found that every time I mention this book, there always seems to be someone around who is either familiar with it or, as I found during my first month with it back in '99, is actively using this book. You may notice, as well, that it isn't The Writer's Way. Although there are a ton of writing exercises, The Artist's Way is a book for anyone, even people who feel like they haven't an ounce of creativity in their souls.<br />
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<b>Things I'm Grateful For <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lost097-20&l=as2&o=1&a=081186720X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></b><br />
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When I pulled The Artist's Way off my bookshelf this morning, I noticed my old Gratitude journal out of the corner of my eye. My very empty Gratitude journal, that is. I'm fairly certain I bought it just for the cuteness (knowing the premise, you can really write out your gratitude in a Mead notebook from WalMart just as easily), but since I already have one, I decided to make it a point to write down something I'm grateful for every night, before I go to bed. The Artist's Way will sit on top of my laptop (so I force myself to write before diving into my day) and the Gratitude journal will sit on the table next to my bed so that I can remind myself, how good my life really is and how happy I am to be living it, every night. Who knows, maybe I'll even sleep better because of it.<br />
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Maybe none of these things will make my writing better, but I do believe that the combination of methods and my strong will to keep doing what I love will result in some kind of improvement. Next challenge, crochet?<br />
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<i>Do you have a method or technique that helps you keep doin' what you do? Throw us a bone by leaving a comment on this post.</i><br />
<br /></div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-56409050571925550532012-04-15T00:22:00.000-04:002012-06-01T23:49:15.908-04:00Pinterest – For Good or For Evil<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>My mother is more
plugged in to social media than I am.</b></div>
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The first time my mom sent me an invitation to join
<a href="http://pinterest.com/" rel="nofollow">Pinterest</a>, I scoffed at the idea. I told
myself that the last thing I needed was another way to waste time online, which
is why I was no longer paying much interest to my Facebook account. But curiosity got the best of me about a
month later and I dug around my inbox until I found the invite email. My plan was to avoid the option of requesting
an invite, as I don’t know a single person who has successfully joined that
way, whereas an invite from a friend instantly gets you access. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Unfortunately, my fears were all legitimate: My first three weeks as a Pinterest
user were spent repinning like a madwoman day and night. I couldn’t pull myself away from it and I
felt like I had to get to the end of the recommended pins page or I’d have to
start all over again. Luckily, I snapped
out of my OCD moment long enough to reevaluate and took a really big step back. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>I promised myself
that I would not use Pinterest for evil.
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I set some ground rules to keep the obsessive pinning at bay:<br />
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<li><b>Check your pins.</b> I’m sure I
haven’t been careful enough with this, but I’m trying to get in the habit of
clicking the pin through to the website to make sure the link works. I don’t want to be passing on something
corrupted or spammy to anyone else.</li>
<li><b>Use ‘em or lose ‘em. </b>I try
not to repin anything that I won’t either use later or really want to look at
(pinboards acting as visual collections).
If it’s not going to be useful, that’s what the <b>like </b>button is for.</li>
<li><b>Monthly review ‘n remove. </b>I
try to go through my pins at least once a month to remove any that aren’t
working or I don’t care about anymore.
This will not hurt anyone else’s repins, don’t worry.</li>
<li><b>Monthly review ‘n choose. </b> I
go through and find at least a few pins to apply to my life somehow. The first time I did this kind of review, I
made <a href="http://catherineboley.blogspot.com/2009/08/preparing-for-winter.html" rel="nofollow">lemon honey</a> (which I still use - I’ve already gone through three jars of
it). Most recently I used a pin on how
to correctly <a href="http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/basil-pruning-tutorial-really.html" rel="nofollow">prune basil</a>, something I hadn't even thought to look up before. </li>
<li><b>Beware the spam. </b>I recently
searched for pins having to do with weight loss and ended up with a page full
of pins that all had the same advertisement for a weight-loss program in the
text field. After months of pinning, I had to go back and make sure none of my old pins were spam because I hadn't thought to check. </li>
</ol>
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<b>Using my pinning powers for
good.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Since becoming a more responsible pinner, I rarely find myself sitting in front of the computer for long hours with nothing
to show for it. I know, I know, you were
hoping I would say the obsessive pinning was a thing of the past, but let’s
face it – Pinterest, even when being used for good, is probably going to suck
up at least some of your time. You'll have to decide if it's worth it to you. It can be a really fun site and a fun way to share things you like with people you know (as well as complete strangers). If nothing else, keep in mind that you can join, try it out and then run -screaming- away from it, if it's not going to be a healthy habit for you. <br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Make sure you read the Pinterest <a href="http://pinterest.com/about/terms/" rel="nofollow">Terms of Service</a> and <a href="http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/" rel="nofollow">Pin Etiquette</a>, whether you've just decided to get your pin on or already pinning to your heart's content.</div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1455804438774743607.post-67300058466121868332012-04-13T02:09:00.003-04:002012-04-13T14:53:15.847-04:00We, the Uncrafty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Not everyone has a natural talent for crafts or grew up
around someone who had the time or patience to teach them.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are also those of us who just weren’t
interested when we were younger.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And,
when we finally got interested, thought it was too late to learn.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In a world where it seems like everyone knows
how to knit, I feel a little silly asking what the heck a “<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pspress/4125948256/" rel="nofollow">purl</a>” is or how to
tell the difference between Lamb’s wool, Merino and Shetland.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Learning a new craft/skill can be quite
intimidating.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I like to think of us as the Uncrafty of the world. My brother, unfortunately, likes to refer to
it as being “craftarded.” Either way,
there is nothing wrong with not being a master of all craftdom and it’s never
too late to try something new. Thanks to
<a href="http://pinterest.com/dclostgirl/">Pinterest</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, you
can even try a few things on your own before deciding which craft you really
want to learn. After that, it’s just a
question of finding a beginner’s class or a friend or family member willing to
take you under their wing. Although I’ve
met some pretty snotty crafters, I’ve found that there are more people willing and
excited to share what they’ve learned than not. And there are some great sites that even tell you <a href="http://whatnottocraft.wordpress.com/">what not to craft</a> (see embedded link for my favorite example).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Since this site is largely for beginners, we are going to start off with easy and inexpensive ways to make things. Although many people think of crocheting,
sewing, pottery and the like as standard crafts, for the purposes of this site,
if nowhere else, cooking and baking (at least) will be included.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As one of the Uncrafty, I wanted to create a platform for
discussion, as well as a place for people learning a new craft to get
advice. Fortunately, I was able to
convince a few crafty ladies to provide content for the site and participate in
discussions. If you have questions or
want to help us with the craft-madness that will undoubtedly ensue, please
contact us at <a href="mailto:DCLostGirl@gmail.com">DCLostGirl@gmail.com</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Jesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12247736025298518449noreply@blogger.com0