NaNoBlogMo 3 - Jayne Hat

I am a nerd. Dork. Geek. Weirdo. Whovian. Nerdfighter. Whedonite. Whatever you want to call someone who likes quirky things. And I wear these labels proudly. I am still working on my Pippin scarf, and will post an update of how it looks so far later this month (note: I can't work on it much now because I sure as heck ain't doing colorwork knitting in the dark!).

Celebrating my nerd-pride and continuing my NaNoBlogMo digging into the past, I want to tell you about my Jayne hat. I watched the entire series of "Firefly" in about a week in September 2005. I know this because "Serenity", the movie based off the series, was released on September 30th, 2005, and when my friends discovered late in September that year that I had never seen the show, they vowed to have me watch the entire series before we all went to see the movie on opening night. I really can't tell you how many times I have re-watched the show since then, but I can tell you its a lot. So I have seen the episode "The Message", where Jayne receives a knitted hat from his mother many, many times.
Being both a nerd and a knitter, I thought I could probably recreate that mighty fine and cunning hat. If I remember correctly (damn past me for not keeping a hobby blog!) then I first made a Jayne hat for my dear friend, roommate (at the time), and faithful facebook-wife, Claire for her birthday. She was the one that took my Firefly virginity and sat with me for that week of rushed episode watching. Who better to receive a Jayne hat?

I do remember the hat being a lot of firsts for me. It was my first hat knitted in the round (I had tried an odd method of knitting a weird shape and then sewing it up without much success previously), my first hat with a pom-pom and certainly my first hat with earflaps. This was when I was in my "I'll just look at something and figure out how to knit it, screw patterns!" stage, (who am I kidding...I am still in that stage) so I really just winged it. No swatches to test for gauge, no looking at similar patterns for help, just casting on and hoping. I put on the earflaps with a very scientific method of "trying on the hat and putting markers where my ears are and then picking up some stitches and hoping that when I am done knitting that they are big enough and in the right spots and roughly symmetrical".

With a lot of flying by the seat of my pants, I soon had three Jayne hats. One for Claire, one for her boyfriend and one for me.
I really don't wear my Jayne hat as much as I should. I like the idea that it can serve as a beacon to find other Firefly fans.

Looking back, I am surprised that the hats turned out as well as they did considering how little (comparatively) I knew about knitting and how little planning went into them. It also makes me realize that I haven't knit too many hats. Maybe its time to change that.

NaNoBlogMo 2 - Starting Off Small

Starting off easy in my NaNoBlogMo challenge, with something small and cute. I wish I could say I made the adorable creature you see in the picture above, but I can only take credit for his jaunty scarf.

That's Zeraffe (as in part Zebra/part Giraffe). My friend Benno (real name Paul), had Zeraffe with him in college. I remember the months were getting cold and Zeraffe has a rather long neck...clearly he needed a little something to keep warm. I dug out some leftover chunky red yarn I had from making a friend's blanket and whipped up a simple garter stitch scarf.

I was surprised and happy when I saw this picture on Benno's facebook about two years later, with Zeraffe still wearing his scarf. The picture above was taken in Nanjing, where Benno studied for a semester (apparently Zeraffe did too!).

I can't really remember at what point I went from buying only what I needed to make my current knitting project (and using up most if not all of it), to buying yarn with no project in mind and collecting any leftovers. When I first started knitting, if I didn't have a project in progress then I had no yarn. Now I have a stash of yarn that I think would make any seasoned knitter proud. While it does tend to take up more than a fair bit of room, it does allow me to do projects on the fly, such as Zeraffe's scarf.

NaNoBlogMo - Starting With An Excuse

In an attempt to get back to posting with some regularity, I plan to attempt a "NaNoWriMo" like challenge and try to post in this blog once a day in for the entire month of November...aka NaNoBlogMo.

Just as a head's up, however, thanks to the lovely snow storm that wrecked havoc this weekend, I, like the majority of Connecticut, currently have no power at home. Thanks to a gas fireplace and gas stove (not to mention my trusty headlamp), my family isn't too bad off. Other than no hot water, no cell reception and the fact that we likely won't have power back until the weekend or later, we are doing fine. This does mean that my grand plan to post everyday might be a bit difficult, but I hope to still complete my personal challenge.

Now, previously my entries have been mostly updates on what I had most recently cooked/crafted/improv-ed, a format that won't really work if I have to post everyday (unless you want to see a picture everyday of a scarf that has a few more rows added to it for 31 days straight...the craft equivalent of watching grass grow).

My plan is to post pictures of things I have previously made or done to create a bit of my personal hobby history. For years I made things and sold them or gave them as gifts without taking pictures of them, so I really have no record of what I've made. This will serve as a fun excuse to try and dig through my history. I have already made this plea on facebook but I will make it again, if you have anything that I have made, I would love it if you could take a picture of it and text/email/facebook it to me so I can post about that. Thanks in advance!

Well, wish me luck on my challenge (and wish me some power!)

-Stephanie

Geeky Scarves: Polling the People

If you had to choose to make one of the three scarves below...which would it be?


The first is one version of the scarf the 4th incarnation of The Doctor from "Doctor Who" would wear. I've been rather "Doctor Who" obsessed recently, and though I sadly must admit I have never seen a Tom Baker episode, I feel a certain affinity towards him just from being exposed to the culture. I plan to watch his episodes someday, I promise! And the obscene length is not a deterrent for me since I tend to be a relatively fast knitter and its all straight garter stitch.


The second is Pippin's from "Lord of the Rings". Pippin was always a favorite character of mine and my LOTR obsession in high school led me to being very active on various forums, primarily one that was Billy Boyd/Pippin based. I even was sent my very own "wee scarvie", which was a tiny braid of yarn in the colors of his scarf, and made for other "loons" to recognize their own. His would probably be the least recognizable if I just wore it out in public.

The third is a Hogwarts house scarf from "Harry Potter". The most popular version for fans to make/buy/wear is the Gryffindor house colors, but I don't think that fits for me. Thinking about it recently, I suppose I would probably be more fitting in Hufflepuff, but since Hogwarts is for school age children and I was definitely more focused on my studies at that time, I would probably make a Ravenclaw scarf. (Like the one to the right.)

(Look....the word "geeky" is in the title of this post, ok? I could talk about this stuff for hours.)

While I hope to make all of these one day, I would probably go crazy trying to make them all at once, and the likelihood of having any done by the time winter arrives if I tried would be laughable. So I decided to wash my hands of making the decision myself of which to make first and I polled my friends on facebook.

I'm not sure why, but I thought for sure that either the Hogwarts or Doctor Who scarf would win. Much to my surprise, Pippin pulled ahead and was the clear choice. The argument most people had was that Doctor Who scarves and Hogwarts scarves are to a large part overdone, but you rarely see a Pippin scarf. A good argument, I feel!

With the decision made for me, I went out this past Saturday to my LYS and started a hunt for the right yarns. To me it looks like the yarn that makes up the houndstooth pattern is a variegated yarn (rather than a bunch of different colored yarns), so my first quest was finding a variegated yarn that contained the same color scheme. I also needed defined colors and frequent changes, but not so much that I would get a checkered pattern ...I needed stripes. Then once I found that yarn I would need a background blue/gray yarn that was a similar fiber and thickness. Easy, no? Answer: no.

With help from the lovely Village Wool ladies (and after scrounging around the shop for six rotations), I finally decided on the yarn you see above.

Once I got it home I realized that the color runs were probably a bit too long. It was likely I was going to end up with full repeats of the pattern in one color instead of midpattern changes. So last night I bit the bullet and began a rather long and boring process of dissecting the skein into its different colors, cutting those stretches into smaller bits, reorganizing them into a color change pattern I wanted, and then reassembling the whole shebang into a bit of a Frankenstein-esque skein. I knew from the start of this project that I wasn't going to be heartbroken if my scarf isn't a dead ringer for Pippin's, but I wanted to get as close as possible without going overboard. A couple hours of skein surgery to end up with a scarf I know I'll be a lot happier with is worth it in my eyes.

I've got a few repeats complete already on the needles and I'll keep you folks updated with my progress. I'll take a picture of it once its big enough to actually see the pattern.

Wish me luck!

That Medieval Quilt

This past weekend was one of the best of my life. I served as a bridesmaid for the wedding of two of my good friends from college, Rose and Jesse. Most of the wedding party were friends of mine from college, as was the photographer and even the officiant. I got to help my good friends, attend an amazing and gorgeous wedding, sit at the "best table" (according to the DJ) with even more friends of mine, wear a lovely dress, dance and sing all night, and generally have a fantastic time.

(Photo of the happy couple. Credit to Cesar Caro)

The only downside really was that it all had to end. But hopefully my wedding present to the couple is something that will be around for a while. I met Jesse and Rose through "That Medieval Thing", a medieval reenactment club we were all part of in college. Rose and I actually became friends through becoming co-chairs of the club together (we didn't really like each other before that...something we constantly joke about). Every year for the medieval festival the club put on in the spring, the club would make t-shirts with a design representing the plot. Our sophmore year the club also started putting quotes on the back of the shirts. To the club members its a nice sort of memorabilia. I can't remember exactly when the idea crossed my mind, but soon after they got engaged, I knew I wanted to turn those t-shirts into a quilt as a wedding present for them.

Getting the shirts was relatively easy. We always had a few extras so I called up my friend Katelyn who was running TMT at the time and through her got my hands on most of the shirts I was going to need. Unfortunately the leftover shirts from our senior year Medfest were too small to use, and since Rose actually designed that year's shirt I couldn't leave it out, so I had to sacrifice my own. Totally worth it in my opinion though. From top to bottom are the shirts from freshman to senior year. The bottommost row is the club's coat of arms and then a blank blue shirt (our college colors are green and blue) on which I wrote their names and the date of the wedding on the bottom right square with a silver fabric pen.
I labored over ever little decision on this quilt especially what material to use as the borders between squares. I wanted something that wouldn't clash with all the colors, and was happy when I found a nice black with just a bit of silver/gray detail to it.

This was not only my first ever attempt at making a quilt, but also my first ever attempt at using a sewing machine. And after getting a quick lesson from my mother I have no idea why I put it off so long. Its so efficient!
I backed each shirt with an iron on fusible fabric so they wouldn't stretch, figured out the biggest possible square I could make from each one, measured roughly 800 times, then took a deep breath and cut the squares. After that I sewed them into strips and then sewed the strips together. Once that was done I put the same material around as a border.

The backing was another thing I labored over. Every time I went to the craft stores to get supplies for the quilt I visited the fleece section to see if I could find a nice patterned fleece to use, but nothing spoke to me. In the end I decided to just get more green and blue. It ended up looking somewhat like the giant banner we used in the club for events, so yay for that!
Instead of traditional quilting I went with hand tying. I figured I was already trying to do about 3 new skills at once, I might as well take it easy on myself. I layered the fleece backing, the cotton batting and the quilt top like a big sandwich on top of two tables I pushed together in the living room, taping down each layer as I went to make sure nothing moved. Then put literally every safety pin I own into the thing to make sure it didn't move. I marked with chalk where every tie should be (about 5.5" apart) and then went to it with a curved needle and some silver/gray embroidery floss. It left me with a sore back, but it was really coming together.

After trimming the excess backing and batting, I cut long strips of a silver/gray material for the binding and ironed the strips in half and then folded the raw edges in and ironed again. That way, once I wrapped and pinned the binding around the edges of the quilt I only had to go over it with the sewing machine once and there were no edges left. I took out all the pins, hand sewed the corners and binding ends to make sure everything was secure, trimmed my hand ties to the same length and then took a step back.
(Click the image to see it bigger/with more details)
I am really pleased with how this came out. Every step of the way I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow it all came together into something wonderful. I suppose I could make some cheesy parallel here with how that can describe love, but I shall resist.


I hope that Rose and Jesse can enjoy this quilt for a long time. More importantly, I hope they have a beautiful life together. If their wedding is any clue to how their marriage will be, then it will be gorgeous, geeky, full of love, friendship and silliness...and altogether wonderful.

All my love to you both!
Sproffee

Quiche!

People were asking me this weekend for my quiche recipe, but since I don't usually use recipes it was kind of hard to answer. But here I'm going to type up my basic method and then a more detailed version of what I did Saturday and hopefully that will help!

SUPER BASIC RECIPE/TIPS

The basic method I follow is cook up whatever veggies/meat/deliciousness I want in my quiche until it is cooked well enough to just eat on its own, toss it with whatever cheese I want and about half fill a frozen pastry crust with it. I beat together eggs, milk, salt, pepper (sometimes other stuff like onion/garlic salt or oregano) and sometimes additional cheese and pour it over the "stuffs" to just about fill up the rest of the crust (keep in mind the eggs expand), and cook in a 350F oven until the center is set (about 35-45 minutes).

Have fun mixing and matching your fillings. Below I typed up the quiche I made this weekend with the most "stuffs", but the other one just had steamed broccoli with a bit o' garlic and a ton of cheddar cheese.

ACTUAL DETAILED RECIPE

Ingredients:

Frozen pastry crust, deep dish means more STUFFS! (optional if you don't like crusts)

Butter

Onion, maybe a half or less depending on how much you want, cut into long thin strips

Garlic, 2-3 cloves minced

Mushrooms, about a cup, chopped into about 1/2" pieces

Sausage, 3-4 links or patties, fully cooked and chopped up

Feta

Eggs, 3-4 depending on how much stuff/how deep your crust is

Milk, about a half cup

Baby spinach, handful of leaves, chopped or torn into slightly smaller pieces

Shredded cheddar

Salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook the onions in the butter over low heat for a while until they start getting really soft (you want them to end up caramelized or near enough by the time your whole veggie mixture is done). Add the garlic and cook a bit longer. Toss the mushrooms in and cook a bit more. Everything should be getting slightly golden/brown and soft. Toss the baby spinach in and cook just long enough to wilt it/coat it with butter. Note: I usually end up constantly adding butter in small bits to make sure it gets on everything. You don't want the food to burn but you don't want it to be swimming in butter either.When it looks good and cooked, remove from heat.

Toss your cooked veggie mixture with the chopped up sausage and feta and put it on the bottom of your pastry shell, or if you are going the crustless route, on the bottom of a greased pie dish. You want the filling stuff to about half fill your dish, if you have more than that it might not hold together with the egg, if you have too little it won't be overbrimming with delicious stuffs.

Beat your eggs and milk together with salt/pepper/any additional seasonings you want (I put in a little oregano on Saturday). Pour over the stuffs until your crust/dish is just about full. Sprinkle some cheddar over the top.

Pop the whole shebang in the middle of your oven and cook until the center is set (when you wiggle it, the center doesn't look liquidy). About 35-45 minutes.

Happy quiche-ing!

Paintbox is Finished!

(click the pictures if you'd like to see them bigger and clearer!)
Last month, I finally added the last rows to my Noro Paintbox blanket for my parents. This project has been on my needles on and off for over a year now, but the vast majority of it was done since June of last year. It was really a fantastic project and great in terms of balance and timing.


The project was easy enough so that I could relax and watch a movie and mindlessly knit row after row of garter stitch, but just when things might seem a bit dull I had to do the cast off/turn/pick up stitches dance of the log cabin pattern.

And the timing was great because a lot of the square work was done in the summer when we made frequent trips up to the cabin. I could just toss whatever square I was in the middle of working on and an extra skein or two in my bag and I was set for the weekend. Plus, working on individual squares kept my lap free of a huge hot woolen mass. Once it started cooling down, though, that's when it was time to start stitching those bad boys together. As the days got colder, the blanket grew big and my lap stayed toasty warm.

The only downside I would say to the making of the blanket is that the in-between black stripes did get very very boring. The edges took about 30 minutes to do each row. Considering that each side has 10 rows and there are four sides....on second thought let's not consider that.

My only complaint (because I'm never satisfied) would be about the slight bubbling of the squares within the borders. Perhaps its because the edging yarn was VERY slightly thinner than the Noro. Maybe it's because my bind-offs for the squares were too tight. Maybe I knit my edges too tight. Who knows. I am sure that after some use or a pass over with the steam setting of an iron will get it flat.

With this project, I have used up the last skeins of the Noro Kureyon that my lovely friends and family got for me two and half years ago to make a blanket for myself. It seemed only right for me to use what was left of that generous gift to make something for my parents who have always been fantastic to me and done so much for me. All of these pictures were taken at the blanket's new home: my parent's bedroom at their cabin.

I am immensely proud of this blanket and I hope my parents will be able to enjoy it for years to come.