Beer!

Remember how I mentioned I was going to a Beer Brewing class? Well I went and it was super fun! It was held at 3rd Ward here in Brooklyn and taught by the folks behind Brooklyn Brew Shop. I was so into the class and really trying to listen and pay attention that I didn't take any photos. Then as I was looking for beer recipes through the BBS website I stumbled on this photo:

That's me on the far left. As you can see, I was being a very astute pupil. haha

This is Erica and Stephen. They were very nice teachers.

My friend Irina and I are going to go out and buy supplies today so hopefully we'll start brewing tonight!

Also, did you know that a new a new Textile Arts Center has opened in Brooklyn? It's in Park Slope and I think it's technically already open but they're having a Grand Opening and Premier Gallery Exhibition on September 17th! I think it's going to be really fun. You can find out more about all of that here.

The View From Here, Part II

For the second time this week I looked down to realize that my knitting matched my outfit. I think that's kinda neat.

I'm using some hand spun that I had forgotten about. I think it's turning into a little camera case. It's pretty cute, huh?

Sunset Stitchery

I forgot to show you something I bought in Vermont last month; this crazy awesome 'Sunset Stitchery' embroidery kit. The kit is called 'Indian Chief' and I'm not quite sure how old it is (I'm guessing 70's?) but it looks like all the supplies are still here. It's basically like a paint-by-numbers but with yarn instead of paint.

I opened the kit as soon as I got back to Brooklyn and was going to start stitching right away but after putting the fabric in the hoop I paused... The printed fabric looked really cool with the un-embroidered image in shades of tan on beige. So yeah, I'm still not quite sure what I want to do. For now it's just hanging up in the craft room... waiting for me to decide.

What do you think?

Crochet Weekend

For a long time, I didn't really want to learn crochet. I didn't like the way it felt to hold that little hook and I also thought that knit fabric was prettier than crocheted fabric. I enjoyed (and still do enjoy) working on my giant granny square blanket but I didn't have a lot of desire to learn any other crochet methods.

Lately, though, I've been giving crochet another chance. There are some really cool things about crochet; you can get a lot more sculptural, because there is only one "live" stitch, and you can do a lot of free form stuff.

This weekend I have been crocheting.

I have been making some big stuff with this giant ball of yarn. I'll probably show you what I'm making with this tomorrow. Also, the yarn ball is way bigger than it looks in this photo... do I have giant hands?

I have also been crocheting some dainty, delicate stuff.

These necklaces are vintage faux pearls with crocheted cotton threads. I really like how they've turned out and I've got plans for more... It has been so rewarding to work with materials and techniques I'm totally unaccustomed to and see such a lovely result.

These necklaces are available for sale at Treehouse. You should swing by!

Trying Wine-Dyeing

The other night I was having a glass of wine after work. The bottle had been opened a few days prior, was half-full, and the wine seemed just on the verge of being totally un-drinkable. So I settled down on the couch, put on The Simpsons, poured myself a glass... and almost immediately fell asleep.

So, here I was this afternoon with some sour old wine. boo. I decided maybe it would be fun to try using said wine to dye some yarn. I couldn't really find any information about it online but I felt like I'd heard about people doing this before so I just decided to go for it.

I pulled out some nice worsted weight un-dyed 100% wool yarn. I got this yarn at a good price so I didn't mind if I got a funky result.

I also had this big container of mordant in the craft room. Someone gave it to me a while back but I haven't tried it yet so I decided to use this as well. This mordant is alum, it's one of the least toxic mordants, this is lucky for me because I accidentally breathed some in when I opened the container. Seriously.

If you're wondering what mordant is, you can click here.

And the star of the show, the gross old wine! I was ready to begin.

I dissolved some alum in a bowl of hot water and added the yarn. I let this sit for about half an hour, then strained out the liquid.

I poured all the wine over the yarn and then added just enough hot water so that all the yarn was submerged. I let this sit for about an hour but it seemed like the color wasn't really taking. I transferred everything into a pot and cooked it on the stove until it was just about to boil. I was hoping the heat would help set the color. After letting the yarn cool a bit I rinsed it and hung it up to dry.

Anyway, the final result of this little project isn't very exciting:

The yarn on top is the wine-dyed skein. The one on bottom in un-dyed. They're different, but not very different. I don't mind the color, it's sort of a really pale dusty lavender, but I think I'll probably dye it again to get something darker.

After doing a bit more research I found out that I should have boiled the wool with the alum and also some cream of tartar. Then I should have let it dry before dying it. But I didn't have any cream of tartar and I also wanted more immediate gratification so, even knowing what I know now, I probably would have done the same thing anyway.

So in the end, I had a skein of yarn that was a slightly different color than it had been a couple hours earlier and a kitchen that smelled like wet sheep and hot wine... I probably won't wine-dye again. At least not for a while. But I also don't see myself not finishing a bottle of wine again any time soon so I suppose that's okay.

Five Faves

Pip over at Meet Me at Mikes is suggesting that people share their five favorite things this week and I think that's a very nice idea so here goes!

1. Treehouse Brooklyn

This super cute Brooklyn shop carries a mix of vintage clothing and locally-made apparel, jewelry, and home goods. The shop also hosts craft classes and parties and has a big library of craft books old and new to peruse. I'm interning at the shop once a week right now and having so much fun! This is definitely one of my favorite things. Website is here. And if you live in the NYC area you should come and visit!

2. Carrot Cake

Norel and I made carrot cake (cupcakes!) recently and it was so good. It reminded me why I usually requested it for my birthday cake as a little kid. Unfortunately, I left some of it out on the kitchen counter overnight and a mouse decided to come taste some... Lesson learned. Recipe here!

3.The Backyard

I know I've mentioned my love for my backyard before but I don't care. I just love it. It's special and amazing and beautiful. Logan planted some new stuff this past weekend and I'm going to try to find a hammock this Friday. Hooray!

4. Kata Golda's Handstitched Felt

I bought Kata Golda's book last week because it is just way way too cute and I couldn't leave the shop without it. All of the projects are fairly simple but that's okay for me because I'm really not great at sewing and sometimes I need help figuring out how to construct even simple items. The first project I did from the book is the Glasses Case and I think it turned out perfectly. I think I might give these out as gifts in the future...

5. My New Craft Room!

I have a craft room in my new place and I'm so happy about it! I know it's a bit messy in this photo but I'm still figuring out where to put things. All the crafty things that were stuffed into the closet and under the bed at my old apartment are now out in the open for me to admire and use! It's funny when people come over and are surprised at the amount of yarn I have. I'm so used to it that I feel like it's a totally normal amount for one person to have. Oh well. I love my yarn. I really do. A lot.

That's all for now. I'm going to go back to knitting my ugly/pretty socks and watching The Simpsons (which is an all-time favorite thing).

What I'm Making Now

Just a few quick photos of some projects I'm working on.

First, some super simple mittens for my niece Olive. She's turning 3 next week! I'm so in love with her...

The yarn is Lion Brand Alpine Wool in the color Bay Leaf. I love the color. The yarn itself is... okay. Not great. I wish the twist was a bit tighter but I think these will turn out nicely. It's actually my first time knitting mittens flat (i.e. not in the round). The pattern can be found here. The only change I made was that I'm picking up four stitches when I start on the thumbs instead of decreasing one. And I went up one needle size for the body of the mittens. I think that's it...

I'm also working on these socks in Lion Brand Sock-Ease. I'm not really a sock knitter but I was at the Lion Brand Studio a couple weeks ago and I just thought the Rock Candy color way was so pretty. Then when my friend Josie came over the other night she saw what I was making and told me that she's working on socks in the same color! Hopefully some day we will be sock twins...

And lastly, this little embroidery. I wanted to make something quick and easy and this was what I came up with. A little snail with what is pretty much just the first word that popped into my head - Molasses. Logan was working on some embroidery as well. He's making a portrait of our friend Greg and it looks really cool. I'll show it to you another time.

One last thing! I'm on Flickr now! You can find me at http://www.flickr.com/photos/smallestfriend/

Bye!

Finished

One completed circle scarf! And this only took me one day!

You could definitely crank a few of these out before Christmas and they only cost about $7 to make. This is actually the style that I sell at a boutique in Soho and they are quite a hit.

Nothing Too Exciting

The weather was so nice today! I took the boy I babysit to his swimming lesson that is in this amazing pool on the top floor of a building on the upper east side.

The baby and I used the wait time to work on some drawings.

And here is the view from the pool. The sun was just starting to set. It was beautiful.

Also, do you remember these? Woven pot-holders! Last weekend my friend Nora brought out her little pot-holder loom and let me make one. It's something I remember doing in pre-school. I loved it.

I think I might get a couple kits for my sisters for Christmas. You can find them here, by the way. And if you've never done it before, trust me, they are really fun to make.

One Giant Slipper

These ones look so cute...

So... I had been wanting to make these slippers for a long time. They were in issue 5 of Craft magazine and were also featured on the Craft blog a little while back. I had some purple and pink yarns (kool-aid dyed) that look really nice together so it seemed like the timing was right to finally make these super-cute slippers.

I only knit one because it actually took quite a long time and because I wanted to make sure it would all work out before I knit two of them. And it was HUGE. It was so huge that I was able to fit it on my head and convince my friend that I had knit a really weird hat (it seemed funny at the time).

We don't have a washer and dryer at our apartment so I tried felting it by hand with hot soapy water... It hardly shrank at all! In fact it's still this big.

See how big it is compared to my foot?

I guess I'll have to use a proper washing machine to really get them to felt enough. We'll see how that goes...

For now I'm just going to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and knit with... cashmere! I bought my first cashmere yarn ever and it's so so so nice. It's white and lovely and I'll post photos of what I'm making soon. I just have to be careful not to get any peanut butter on it in the meantime...

Yarns and Leaves

First of all, I now have hand dyed yarn in the shop. Hooray!

I have to say I really think they are so pretty... and I'll have more coming out within the next couple weeks.

I also want to tell you about something that i think is really neat:

I am very lucky to get to hang out in Central Park a few times a week (because of babysitting). It's such a beautiful place to spend time and it's especially beautiful in autumn.

So, behind the Metropolitan Museum (which is in the park) is this huge vent that blows out a ton of warm air, and the kids from the school play this game where they all get a huge arm-load of leaves and throw them on the vent at the same time.

The leaves shoot way up into the air and all the kids shout and scream and it's actually super exciting. If you're in nyc you should really try it sometime.

Get Dressed!

Hi there.

Here she is! I'm pretty pleased with how this little doll turned out. I hope she'll go to a little kid who will give her a lot of love.

Here she is in her little body suit (I decided to make her a body suit so I wouldn't have to make her a top and underwear). It's made out of a sock. Isn't that neat? It was so quick to sew up and I really like the cheerful color.

And here's a detail photo of her little sweater. This is the fourth project I've done with this felted sweater. I've also made two pairs of mittens and an iPod cozy, and the sweater only cost $2! And I still have a lot left! I've gotta buy more funky wool sweaters.

What I'm working on now

Doesn't she look happy?

Right now I'm finishing up making a doll to donate to the school of the kid I babysit. She is a Waldorf-style doll and they are really fun to make but it is a lot of work. I made one last year as well and I thought I would remember more about the process this year but... I didn't. Maybe the third time will be the charm?

Here she is right before she got arms

I really like how the doll itself turned out- she's really cute! I used a different process for the hair this year, in which yarn is attached to the head using pins first and then sewn on. It's relatively quick and very sweet. I'm having trouble with her outfit though. I wanted to make a little girl but her clothes are making her look more like a middle aged woman... maybe it's my imagination. So far she has a little cap knit from remnants of some Manos del Uraguay yarn, a sweater made from a felted sweater (from a swap meet in VT), her shirt is from a cut-up sock, and her skirt is from a sleeve I cut off a dress. And she doesn't have any shoes yet. Or underwear. And it's a school rule that dolls with skirts and dresses need underwear... Tomorrow I'll post some clothing photos.

Also this week, I finished up a hat for myself. Kind of...

I used yarn I spun from some really beautiful merino/tencel blend I got from Cloudlover69 on Etsy. It's really pretty yarn and the tencel gives it a cool shine that is difficult to photograph properly. But I think I used too small needles and tried to decrease too quickly at the end because the shaping just wasn't good and it was too stiff... so i ripped it out.

And lastly I finally gave this little beanie to my niece Olive. It was knit with handspun from some lovely merino roving from Rawfish that I spun last winter. Actually that was some of my first handspun... it might have been done on the drop spindle... I've gotta start making more notes...

Look at the expression on her face. She is such a ham. I love her for it.

Dear Internet,

My name is Lydia and I'm starting this little blog today for a few reasons:

-to promote my Etsy shop http://smallestfriend.etsy.com

-to organize some of my own thoughts and ideas (and hopefully be more productive)

-to share some of the knowledge I have through tutorials and knitting patterns and other things like that

-to have more motivation to take photos of things I make and do

Lately I've been really getting into Kool-Aid dying. It's really fun, pretty cheap, and a great way to try out dying with out spending a ton of money on a big dye kit and special pots and mordant and whatnot. I used this tutorial from Leethal.net to get started. You can really get some beautiful colors and it even smells good. Well, except the Mango, that one smells so weird and musty and definitely not something I would ever drink.... eww.

Some yarn drying on my little balcony

Yarn dyeing in progress using Cherry, Orange and Mango Kool-Aid

More to come soon!